


Sincerity and Determination

by WolfsbaneHorizon



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dreams and Nightmares, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, I'm Bad At Tagging, It’s better than it sounds, Original Character(s), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychological Drama, and Cuteness, and Maybe a Little romance, but That’s not really the focus, but don’t worry, i think, oh right, so just read it, there’s puns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-24
Updated: 2018-10-05
Packaged: 2019-06-15 08:59:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 100,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15409515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WolfsbaneHorizon/pseuds/WolfsbaneHorizon
Summary: “Xeno felt his monsters crawling on his back; demons pounding in his head. The agonizing throbbing in his mind was devouring his sanity alive. He needed to escape. There was no way he could survive like this.”Dealing with his past’s trauma, Xeno, a person from another universe, finds himself stuck in the Underground with broken wings and without the ability to use his Saikik powers. Meanwhile, his close “friend with benefits” Ravina-Wolf Kigami, King of Tooikuka, starts searching the multiverse for his friend. However, during his time in the Underground, it seems that Xeno’s presence has really changed things for the monsters who live there...





	1. Who Broke the Fall

Xeno felt his monsters crawling on his back; demons pounding in his head. The agonizing throbbing in his mind was devouring his sanity alive. He needed to escape. There was no way he could survive like this.

  
It was a situation which would stress out anyone, but when put together with Xeno’s own state of mind, everything like this became an unbearable nightmare. He was kneeling in the desolate ruins of his hometown, Starton, in the Starnight Universe. All of this looked so familiar, and despite everything that had taken place here… he still missed him. He still missed Geno.

  
That’s why he keeps on coming back here. He doesn’t even live in this universe anymore. His best friend, Ravina, had saved him from this hellish dystopia and taken him to his own home universe. It was so nice of him to do that… but Geno was left behind, and…

  
Dust.

  
That’s all that became of this world.

  
Despite knowing that coming back here was a terrible idea, Xeno oftentimes found himself back here. Whether in a dream or real life or just in his memories, Xeno realized that he never really left “home.”

  
But he wishes he could.

  
He wipes away some of his tears, smudging his mascara across his cheeks, and is suddenly breathless as he hears the sound of footsteps from behind him. “Geno,” a familiar voice says. “It’s him again.”

  
Xeno’s breathing goes out of sync and his body freezes up, feeling himself become chilled to the bone at the thought of HIM behind him. HIM…

  
Geno and Nosa, his… slave? Pet? Friend? Partner? Lover? Hell if Xeno knew what to call Nosa. Not even THEY seem to know what the relationship is between the two of them. No matter what though, they’re both SICK MONSTERS.

  
As the human-bodied monsters approach, Xeno’s arms shake and rise to hug himself tight. He needs to leave. He needs to leave NOW. They’ll catch him… they’ll kill him… they might… they might torture him… they might rape him… they might just eat him alive…! A cold, broken and bloodstained hand rests on Xeno’s shoulder with uncharacteristic gentleness. Geno’s corpse-like voice whispers to him… “welcome home, Xeno… I’ve missed you so much, y’know…”

  
Suddenly, Xeno finds the will to move and he scrambles to stand, knocking Geno’s hand off his shoulder. “NO LEAVE ME ALONE!!!” Using his Saikik(a version of magic) powers, Xeno uses his Borderline Breaking Saikik technique, creating a flash of light as cracks appear in space. Within milliseconds, Xeno was gone through the cracks in the dark matter and found himself drifting through the multiverse, in the vast empty dark energy and matter between universes.

  
That was the closest Geno had gotten to taking him since he’d left. He couldn’t let him get that close ever again.

  
“I… I need to see Wolfie…” Xeno cried Ravina’s nickname into the Void, letting his essence drift aimlessly while he tried desperately to regain composure. “He always makes me feel better…” He takes a couple deep breaths, as one didn’t really do it all the way, and finally he starts to move.

  
However, he wasn’t paying enough attention to his movements and he finds himself caught up in a sudden astral storm. He gets tossed and turned around in the deadly supernatural phenomenon and quickly scrambles to escape the storm and get through it. He knows that the universe he is around is not his, but he finds that he doesn’t have much of a choice. He has to land somewhere NOW or he’ll die out here in the solitude and nothingness of the Void.

  
Xeno breaks into the closest universe to his location and falls from the sky. In the storm, his artificial metal wings were broken so he couldn’t fly. He found himself plummeting down towards a hole atop a mountain. With his Saikik, he thought fast and managed to use levitation to try and break the fall. However, as he passed into the hole in the ground, a sudden forcefield flared up, sending a magical electric force throughout his body. His Saikik failed him as he crashes down upon a soft bed of beautiful golden flowers.

 

**~*^^*~**

 

It’s the dead of night when Xeno finally wakes up. He hadn’t realized that he’d passed out. Groaning at the dull pains in his bones, he manages to prop himself up on his knees. “What the fuck…” He growls, rubbing his forehead. “This sucks…” He tries to move his wings, but they stay motionless as they are. There’s still some stardust in them(the wings are powered by the Saikik energy that stardust emits), but they themselves are broken and can’t take advantage of the power source. They simply spark up a bit when attempting to power on and then it stops. Xeno looks up at the star-spotted sky above him. “I… I don’t know how to get out of here then…”

  
He then remembers that he can just use Borderline Breaking to return to Ravina’s universe and ask the wolf to fix his wings. That would be fine. Ravina had always told Xeno to be careful when traveling between universes since there are some very deadly and powerful ones out there. Xeno shudders at the thought that he could have accidentally landed in one of those “ultimate universes.” He wouldn’t stand a chance in one of those.

  
However, when he tries to use his Saikik, he finds that he can’t do so. A spark of magic appears when he tries, but it fizzles out almost instantly. He feels his heart sink. “Oh shit… not again…”

  
This kind of thing has happened before, but thinking about it, this time is different than the last. Last time it was SKRRaN’s fault. If this was SKRRaN’s doing, Xeno would KNOW. She’d make it obvious. But Xeno senses no interference from the Goddess of Insanity, so this couldn’t be her fault this time. Something else must have happened to him to prevent his Saikik from working.

  
That means he’s stuck here. In a foreign and potentially really dangerous universe. He hugs himself to try and make him feel safer. “I’m totally screwed oh my god…”

  
“Is that a human I hear?” Says a cute voice from just a small ways down the pathway. Xeno recoils in shock, unsure of what to expect. “Ah! W-who…? I… I’m not human… Well, I am, but only half…”

  
The voice laughs kindly and Xeno sees something burrowing just under the ground, headed straight for him. He squeals in shock and curls up into a ball, squeezing his eyes shut. “Don’t hurt me please! I’m just lost! I wanna go home!”  
The creature stops in front of Xeno and pops out of the ground. “Howdy!” It says. Xeno blinks his eyes open, expecting something… worse. He looks down at the… flower in front of him? His arms drop to his sides and he slouches down, resting on his knees and staring down at the flower with a face. He is speechless for a moment, but… honestly, he’s seen stranger things out there in the multiverse so he really shouldn’t be surprised by this. Still… he was expecting something more threatening than… whatever the hell THIS thing is supposed to be. “…What the hell is this?”

  
“Uh, I’m not a THIS!” The flower says, frowning. “My name’s Flowey! Flowey the flower!” Xeno glances around, wondering what kind of joke THIS is. “Yeeeeah… okay… soooooo, THAT is the dumbest name I’ve EVER heard… your parents must have HATED you, Flowey.” Flowey glares at him. “Hey! Don’t talk about them!”

  
“Oh, sorry,” Xeno says, smiling. He feels a bit less threatened now and tries to start up some kind of conversation. “Sore subject? I get it. Uh, my best friend Wolfie hates talking about his parents too. He doesn’t hate them, but he doesn’t like to talk about it, y’know?”

  
Flowey stares up at Xeno, a look of annoyance on his face. “Eh, sure… look, I can tell you’ve never been down here in the Underground before, have you?” Xeno shrugs. “I’m new to this whole world, actually. I don’t usually go to new universes without Wolfie… he knows what he’s doing when he goes universe surfing. He does it all the time. I… don’t, really…” Xeno then remembers one of the first things Wolf had ever told him about arriving in a new universe: don’t just outright TELL THEM that you’re from another universe. _…Well, too late for THAT I guess_ , Xeno thinks to himself.

  
Flowey smiles and chuckles. “Wow, poor you! How about letting your new friend Flowey show you how things work around here?” Xeno holds his hands together and grins happily, stars shimmering in his eyes. He was worried there for a moment, but it looks like he was lucky enough to land in a kind one. “Yes! Thank you, Flowey! You’re the best! I was so scared that something horrible was gonna happen, since my Saikik suddenly isn’t working…” Flowey tilts is head in interest at this. “Oh really? Well, isn’t that a shame?”

  
Suddenly, the world around them goes black and the colors of the two of them fade to black and white. Xeno squeaks in shock at this as a purple heart suddenly materializes in front of his chest. “What’s going on?! Why is there a purple heart here all of a sudden?! Why am I MONOCHROME?! God, Wolfie would HATE this. He’s a very colorful guy.” Flowey rolls his eyes, ignoring the comments. “That thing you have right there is your SOUL. Your SOUL is-!”

  
“Why does my SOUL look like a heart?” Xeno asks, cutting Flowey off. “And why is it not INSIDE MY BODY WHERE IT BELONGS?” Flowey lets out a long sigh mixed with a growl. “I didn’t prepare enough for this… It just IS, alright? Look, your SOUL is made of LOVE, okay? But it doesn’t have very much LOVE right now.”

  
“I feel lots of love though…” Xeno says, frowning. “Don’t try and say I don’t feel love. I love lots of shit.” Flowey frowns. “Hey! That’s a bad word!” Xeno looks at him and crosses his arms. “Oh, you’re one of THOSE people, are you? Well, I don’t fucking care, honestly.” He emphasizes the word “fucking.” Flowey huffs and glares up at Xeno, trying to look tough. “Well, two can play THAT game, you... di...!”

  
Silence.

  
“...Dick?” Xeno finishes the word. “Are you trying to say dick?” Flowey blushes in embarrassment and growls. “N-no! That... THAT’S not a bad word! I was... trying to say... di... dirk. Dirk! DIRK!!” He starts to just constantly scream “dirk” over and over again while waving his body all around and Xeno can’t help but crack up a little. “Oh my god, are you fucking kidding me? You’re pathetic...”

  
Flowey turns to Xeno and shudders with rage. “Grrr... you SHUT UP!!!” Suddenly, a ring of white bullets appear around Xeno and he feels his fear starting to come back. Flowey’s face turns demonic and he smiles in malice at Xeno. “DIE.”

  
Xeno jumps up in shock as the bullets slowly close in towards him. “EEEEEEEH I’M SORRY I DIDN’T MEAN TO OFFEND YOU PLEASE DON’T KILL ME!!!” He tries to run away but finds that he’s trapped in some kind of semi-invisible box preventing him from escaping. He bangs his fist against it in desperation. “I don’t wanna die!! Let me out!! Please!!” Flowey laughs some kind of horrible, distorted laugh as Xeno turns back to him, tears starting to well up in his eyes.

  
“You idiot!” Flowey says. “In this world, it’s-!”

  
Before he could finish his sentence, a magic burst of flames comes from behind him and sends him flying. He screams in shock and the bullets surrounding Xeno disappear. He watches Flowey’s small figure fly away and fade into the darkness, then takes a step away from the magical wall. “Uh… F-Flowey…?” Xeno turns around and recoils in fear when a new voice speaks from where Flowey was once standing.

  
“What a horrible creature,” says the new monster. “Torturing such a poor, innocent youth…”

 

**|\vvv/|**

 

Ravina’s paws tracked blood into the castle as he returned home from his latest expedition to some other universe. He had been tasked with a mission for the Multiverse Crime and Investigation Federation(the MCIF) since the particular universe which the criminal was in was one that Ravina knew particularly well. As the humanoid wolf entered the castle, Pyro, the captain of the Tooikukan Royal Guard, comes up to greet him and sighs in annoyance. “Wipe your paws when you enter the castle, Ravina.” Wolf shrugs and walks past him, smirking and giving him a playful pat on the back as he walks by. “Aww, its all cool, Pyro. It’s just blood. The janitors’ll clean it up.” He stops and turns to Pyro, giving him a cocky grin. “Besides, which one of us is the king here?” He laughs and Pyro groans in annoyance. Ravina shrugs and uses his large angelic wings to hover slightly above the ground. “I’m kidding, buddy. I’ll clean it up; don’t worry. Just gonna go rinse off first.”

  
“No, don’t waste your energy,” Pyro says, crossing his arms and looking away. “I’ll get someone else to clean it. You just go rinse off and relax. You just got back, and you have a report to write for the MCIF. That’s more important than washing this blood off anyway. It won’t kill anyone.” Ravina chuckles. “Maybe.” He laughs and gives Pyro a thumbs up. “I’m kidding. It’s safe. Have fun with that, bud. Enjoy life!”

  
Ravina gently lets himself glide through the air above the ground towards his room, not wanting to get any more blood on the ground by accident. He lets his long rainbow tail lazily drag on the floor and curls his legs so the blood on his feet will (hopefully) not drip on the floor and just roll down his legs and get caught in his fur. He’s about to rinse it off anyway, so who cares if it gets all over his legs?

  
He enters the washroom and, after taking off his rainbow gloves and red scarf(both of which need to be washed due to having blood on them again), plops himself down in the tub once its filled with nice cold water. He slumps down lazily into the water that’s starting to gain a reddish hue from the blood falling off his body. He itches at the small wound on his leg. The mission wasn’t supposed to become violent, but when you have no other option, well… Ravina isn’t opposed to fighting when things start to go down that path. Luckily, the criminal was barely a threat at all to the wolf. They had managed to give Ravina a small wound on his calf, but it wasn’t anything serious.

  
And now they’re dead because they were dumb enough to think they could fuck with Wolf and get away with it. Ravina chuckles at that as he uses his Saikik to levitate his phone and bring it closer to him. He wiped off his hands on the towel beside him and dialed up his good pal Xeno. He put the phone on speaker and plopped it down on top of the toilet seat, waiting for Xeno to pick up. Ring… ring… ring… the waiting was already making Wolf antsy. _Pick up already, Xe,_ he thought.  
Finally, the phone went to voicemail. Ravina frowned. “What the fuck, Xe.” Xeno ALWAYS answers Wolf’s phone calls. Unless he’s either asleep or in some kind of trouble. Wolf sighs, wanting to assume Xeno’s just getting high with some friends and forgot his phone. He brings the phone back to him and clicks “end call” without leaving a message. He never leaves voicemails. Unless he HAS to. He lazily plops the phone back on the toilet and slouches down into the water again. “Well, I’ll go check up on him later.”

 

**~*^^*~**

 

Toriel was her name. The monster had kindly offered to keep Xeno safe from the scary creatures of the Underground and guided Xeno through the ruins. While they walked through the Ruins, Xeno told Toriel of what happened to him and how he arrived in the Underverse. He told her that he can’t seem to use his Saikik ever since coming into the Underground. He starts to suspect that when he passed through the hole leading down here, that shock that he felt caused a disruption in is mental state which is preventing him from being able to focus enough to use Saikik.

“Perhaps because you are not from this universe,” Toriel suggests. “The magic barrier surrounding the Underground effects you in different ways than it does for us who are native to this universe. You have a human SOUL, but your body appears to be that of a monster. When I first saw you, I thought you WERE a monster. Humans do not have antennae like that.” Xeno smiles and chuckles. “I know… but I think they look fabulous on me.” He twitches them a couple times to show them off and Toriel laughs. “Oh, you! You DO look beautiful.”

After arriving at Toriel’s home, she shows Xeno to a spare bedroom and says that he can stay there as long as he’d like. She gives him some clothes to sleep in so he can take a nice needed nap and she can wash his clothes. “Well, thanks,” he says, accepting the pajamas from Toriel. “It’s very nice of you to wash my clothes for me. I usually just sleep in my underwear, but thanks for these anyway.” Toriel frowns. “Well, that is indecent of you.”

“Usually I assume that no one is WATCHING me when I sleep,” Xeno says with a shrug. “And if someone is sleeping WITH me…” He gives Toriel a wink(ACT -> Flirt). “Then I don’t really need even THAT, now do I?” This makes Toriel blush and glance away. “Oh my goodness, child… do not say such lewd things.” Xeno laughs and gives her a playful pat on the arm(he tried to reach her shoulder, but he’s short. He CAN, but it would be awkward). “Alright, alright. I’m gonna take that nap now. See ya, mama!” He gives her a flirty smile and disappears into his room, leaving a confused and slightly flustered Toriel behind.

 

**~*^^*~**

 

After waking up from his well-needed nap, Xeno gets himself dressed in his normal clothes, pulling on his short pink skirt and his pink and black striped long sleeved t-shirt. Over that, he wears a dark grey shirt with a big yellow star on it and shiny black three-fingered gloves. He slips his two-toed feet into his boots(the floor here is surprisingly chilly; his feet get cold just wearing socks) and heads over to the mirror.

  
Sadly, Xeno didn’t bring all his makeup with him. THAT sucks... but he can make do with what Toriel is generously letting him borrow. Most of this stuff seems to be "goat monster"(or whatever kind of monster Toriel is) specific makeup, but the mascara will work on him. _Thank god,_ he thinks as he carefully applies it. _At least I have THAT._

  
After applying the mascara and pulling some of his long purple-tipped orange hair into a ponytail with his pink bow, he smiles at his look in the mirror. "Absolutely. Beautiful." He then poses dramatically for no reason in particular other than it makes him look fabulous for him to admire... well, himself. "Perfect."

  
He happily comes out of his room, feeling refreshed from the nap... and from not looking like shit because his clothes were all dusty and his makeup was messed up from the fall. When he enters the living room, Toriel looks up from her book and smiles at him. “Oh, you are awake!” She gestures to a delicious-looking pie on the table. “The pie has cooled down and is ready to eat. Please, take all you’d like.” Xeno smiles back at her and goes over to the pie. “Don’t mind if I do, mama!”

  
Toriel and Xeno sat in the living room together, with Xeno happily listening to Toriel read him a book about snails. Although, as interesting as that is, Xeno finds himself starting to worry. Would Ravina ever find him here? And, if he did, how would they ever escape this place? Xeno can’t use his own Saikik here, so what are the odds that WOLFIE would be able to? Most likely, Xeno would have to escape on his own… that thought absolutely mortifies Xeno. He’s never done anything like this before… how could he possibly survive in an unfamiliar land without Wolf? He looks up at Toriel, unease filling his mind. “Hey… Toriel?”  
Toriel smiles down at Xeno, who is sitting on the floor and staring up at her. She starts to feel slightly worried at the look he’s giving her, but keeps up her kind face as best she can. “Yes, my child?” Xeno hesitates, really not wanting to scare or offend her somehow, then glances away and says. “I… I really need to go home… Wolfie’s probably worried sick about me, if he’s home yet… and… I can’t just sit around and wait for him to find me… he’ll NEVER know that I’m in THIS universe. We’ve never been here before. I… I have to go.”

  
A look of shock and fear crosses Toriel’s face. “Oh… m-my child… no, don’t worry about that. Your friend WILL find you someday I’m sure. Just wait here with me. You’ll be safe here. Eventually he will come for you; I am sure of it. You do not want to leave!” Xeno frowns and looks up at her. “No, I don’t really… but I HAVE to. You don’t know the multiverse like I do. It’s HUGE. What are the odds that he’d think to check THIS one first? Or second? Or third? Or EVER before we both DIE? He’ll die before he finds me! We’ll BOTH die before he finds me here! Hell, even if he happened to check the right universe, how would he know to look HERE in particular? This universe is more than just this one planet, you know! He could be searching somewhere galaxies away from us! I NEED to leave, Toriel!”

  
The book in Toriel’s hands is slammed shut with a loud clap, shocking Xeno and he flinches, letting out a startled yip. Toriel rises, a dread look of determination on her face as she stares past Xeno. “Wait here. There is something I must do.” As she leaves the room, Xeno seriously considers obeying her and just staying put… but he has a bad feeling that whatever Toriel was about to do was not going to be a good thing. He stands up and hastily follows Toriel down the stairs of her house. When he gets down there, Toriel speaks to him, not turning to face him. “You do not understand, do you? You cannot leave the ruins. If you do… ASGORE will kill you. He will take your SOUL. You would rather go out there and die instead of staying here where you will live?”

  
Xeno hesitates to respond. Truthfully… he doesn’t want to leave. He likes it here, where it’s safe… but that safety is really just an illusion, isn’t it? He’ll die trapped in here if he doesn’t escape. He opens his mouth to say something but Toriel cuts him off as she walks further down the long corridor. “I am going to destroy the exit to the ruins. You will stay here where it is safe. I will NOT let another innocent life be taken.” Xeno growls, truly considering just going back upstairs and relaxing in bed with a nice slice of butterscotch-cinnamon pie… but he forces himself to struggle onward and chase after Toriel.

  
Toriel stands in front of a large door, which Xeno takes to be the exit. A cold sweat runs down his face as he shudders in fear. _Stay determined,_ Xeno, he tells himself. _Be like Wolfie… be strong… you can do this without having to hurt her… Wolfie would never hurt anyone with good intentions, s-so… just… just shove her out of the way, and… and… go!_ He sucks in a sharp breath and speaks. “T-Toriel! I… I’m sorry, okay? I have to leave! S-so… if you get in my way… I’ll have to… uhh… I’ll… have… to…” He doesn’t know what he’ll have to do. No, not that he doesn’t know. It’s that he doesn’t WANT to know. Toriel turns towards him, an expression of firm resolve staring him in the face. “You think you could really survive out there? Fine. Then show me. Show me that you can survive!”

  
The world flashes in and out of color a couple times and finally settles on the monochrome colors of heartbreak. Xeno clenches his fists by his sides as his purple SOUL manifests itself before him. He didn’t want to get into a fight… but now he has no choice. This was going to be tough.

  
Toriel raises her hand and shoots some spiraling magical flames at Xeno and he dances about inside the transparent box keeping him from fleeing. He’s learned that during fights like this, only attacks that hit his SOUL seem to have any effect. He lets the flames harmlessly clip his arms and face, only being sure to keep them away from his SOUL. Still, he found himself carelessly making some missteps and accidentally getting too close to the walls, cornering himself. If only he were Wolfie… he’d be dodging like a pro.

  
Once the attack stops, Xeno calls out Toriel’s name. She doesn’t react to the call at all as she send another magical attack Xeno’s way. After a few rounds of Xeno’s pleas for peace and mercy have gotten nothing but silence out of the monster, Xeno finds his instincts making him reach for the toy knife he found in the ruins… but he forces himself to stop before he can actually hold it. “No… no, that’s not what Wolfie’d do…” he tells himself. He shudders, feeling a chill go up his spine as he looks into Toriel’s once kind and gentle eyes. “…is it?”

  
In a moment of animalistic instinct, Xeno grabs the knife and lunges at Toriel, grabbing her dress with his right hand and holding the knife in the other. “Stop FIGHTING me and just LET ME GO!!” He screams as his eyes squeeze shut, tears threatening to fall out. Toriel gasps in shock at the sudden change of heart in Xeno and her attack delays for a moment. However, she quickly regains her composure and knocks Xeno off her and sends one more pitiful attack at him.

  
Xeno scrambles to stand back up after being knocked off Toriel. The threat didn’t work… A few tears finally begin to leak from his eyes. _I don’t have a choice, do I?_ He thinks. He pushes through the flames towards Toriel, his whole body shaking in terror. He’s afraid of HIMSELF right now… but he won’t kill her. He’ll just… knock her down and… run. He’ll run away.  
_Why did things have to go so wrong…?_

  
In one fell swoop, Xeno swung the knife at Toriel. He forced himself to hold back as much as he could, but his eyes were shut tight as he didn’t want to see what kind of damage he REALLY did… to them both. He hears a gasp and the magical energy surrounding Toriel dissipates. Xeno’s breaths are heavy and quick, and after what feels like an eternity he slowly cracks open his eyes as Toriel’s hands, weak and shaking, rest on his shoulders.

  
The knife drops from Xeno’s hand as he looks at the wound he made on Toriel’s torso. Blood was flowing freely from the wound and Xeno could swear he was seeing it gradually getting worse, as if there was some kind of acid eating away at Toriel’s wound. Xeno felt completely sick to his stomach; this wasn’t really HIS fault, was it?!

  
Toriel struggled desperately to stay standing, trying to use her arms on Xeno’s shoulders to keep her upright, but… she failed. She let out a cry of pain as she fell to her knees before the sobbing Xeno. He held his hand in front of his mouth in shock; he was feeling dizzy and nauseous. It took all of his strength just to not vomit right then and there. “I… I-I’m sorry, To-Toriel!! I di-didn’t mean to… to do THIS!!!” He slowly and weakly knelt down in front of her and held her in his arms, both of them shuddering for different reasons. Toriel looked up at him, the kindness returning to her eyes. “O-oh… m y c h i l d . . .” Xeno hushed her and kept repeating “it’s okay, Tori” and “I’ll get help” and “you’re not gonna die” over and over to her as she slowly and weakly reached her hand up to his face. The hand, as well as other parts of her body, were beginning to dissolve and turn to dust.

  
“I understand…” she says weakly and barely audibly. “I… u n d e r s t a n d . . . It… is… okay… you… you will.. I know you w i l l b e o k a y . . .” Her eyes slowly flutter shut and tears begin to fall down her cheeks. Xeno can’t bear to look anymore and he squeezes his eyes shut, starting to just ramble and spout out anything he thinks in his rattled mind. “No, no...! I’m n-not okay…! I didn’t think I would KILL you I just wanted to leave and you-you just wouldn’t let me GO so I was gonna just knock you away and then I didn’t think I was that strong I’ve never KILLED anything before I don’t KILL people OH MY GOD NO I’M A MURDERER!!!” He feels Toriel’s hand break apart and the dust gently speckles his cheek. Toriel’s dying voice whispers one last thing to Xeno.

  
“y o u a r e n o t a b a d p e r s o n , m y c h i l d . . .” Xeno’s eyes open just barely and he watches Toriel’s body disintegrate. She has a smile on her face, clearly only trying to make Xeno feel better in her last moment. “I s t i l l l o v e y o u . . . O k a y . . . ?”

  
And all that was left in his hands was blood, tears and dust.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, thanks for reading this far! Feel free to leave a comment telling me what you think. I’m curious how people feel about this story. I promise it gets better and more interesting as it goes on. Enjoy life!


	2. This Is Going Tibia Good Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story uses work skins to allow for the Sans and Papyrus fonts. It took a ridiculously long amount of time to format, so hopefully some people actually get to enjoy it!

Xeno’s legs are heavy as he drags himself down the long corridor leading out of the Ruins. Now there’s absolutely NO way he could ever see those Ruins again. He wouldn’t be able to deal with the memories of Toriel that would come back to him so vividly if he sees those ancient hallways and columns. He would completely break if he saw Toriel’s home again...

  
So he forces himself away as fast as his legs will drag him. He finds himself barely able to walk straight since he keeps shutting his eyes so he doesn’t have to see the dust and blood on his hands and clothes. It’s hard to ignore, however, when it keeps making its presence known with every footstep making a very faint noise that almost sounds like walking on a floor barely dusted with sand. It’s so faint, but every step grates against his soul. _Just get to the exit,_ he tells himself in an attempt to reassure. _You’ll find... a river or something... and you can wash off there. This can all be over with... and you’ll go home._

 

Eventually Xeno arrives in a large open room filled with darkness. There’s a single ray of light coming from a crack in the rocky underground ceiling and illuminating a small fraction of a small mound of dirt. Xeno considers trying to break it open... but 1. It’s too high for him to reach with his wings being broken, 2. The barrier will prevent him from leaving anyway, most likely, and 3. It’s too small for him to fit through, so it doesn’t even matter. He sighs, feeling homesickness and other illnesses churning in his gut as his heavy feet pull him forward towards the Ruins’ exit

  
However, before he can exit, a familiar traitor pops his head out of the ground of the partly-visible mound. His form is lit just barely by the small ray of light and Xeno can make out a deceitfully kind smile on his face. “Well, howdy!” He says happily. “Golly, you sure did surprise me, Xeno!” Seeing the flower before him, Xeno freezes in place. He can’t deal with this NOW... “F-Flowey...”

  
“Wow, you’re a pretty awful guy, aren’t you?” Flowey says in an unfittingly casual tone. “You were FLIRTING with her so much, and then you go and kill her?” He laughs. “I guess to SOME that could be romantic...” Xeno takes a step back and wrings his hands in distress. “No... d-don’t talk about... that... I didn’t mean to... to do THAT... it was an a-accident!” Flowey shrugs(as best as flower can, that is) and chuckles. “Yeah, sure you didn’t. But you went at her with a knife anyway, didn’t you? And you didn’t think that MAYBE you’d KILL her?”

  
“It’s not even a real one!” Xeno growls at Flowey, taking out the toy knife to prove it. “It’s fake!” Flowey’s face morphs back into the evil grin. “Anything can be a weapon, even if it’s SUPPOSED to be safe! I don’t know why you would have even thought to pick that up if you really didn’t have any intentions to kill!” He laughs his demonically distorted laugh, making Xeno shudder and tear up again, dropping the knife. Once his laughter subsides, Flowey’s face returns to his usual deceitfully innocent one. “Boy, I sure am looking forward to the mess YOU’RE gonna cause! You should ‘accidentally’ kill people more often! Well, keep it up!” The demonic face returns, his eyes glowing red as he lowers his body into the shadows. “I’ll be watching you!” And just like that, he returns to the darkness. Xeno gulps and hesitantly forces himself to hurry onward, choosing to leave the knife behind in the dust.

 

**~*^^*~**

 

Outside of the Ruins is snow. That and tall, frozen trees is all he can see once he exits. It looks barren, but Xeno knows that in such an unfamiliar world, it’s all too likely that there’s SOMETHING horrible out there that he just can’t, or hasn’t, seen yet.  
Knowing that finding a river that isn’t frozen over in this kind of weather is near impossible, he decides to try and use the snow to help rub at least the blood off his clothes.

  
Something Xeno’s noticed is that in battle, his body doesn’t take damage from attacks. Only his SOUL does... well, that’s what he thought until... well, Toriel. When his SOUL gets hit, it seems to gain some kind of “temporary invincibility,” and during that short time his normal body can be injured. But interestingly, he didn’t ever notice because he doesn’t feel the pain in his body. Instead he only feels it in his SOUL. But after the battle ended and his SOUL went away(presumably, or hopefully) back into his body, he started to feel the injuries from the fight. He has burns all over his body now, and he’s very glad that the snow is here to cool him off.

  
Still... it’s so cold. Very cold. Even being burned, he’s still shivering. He slowly trudges through the deep snow of the winter-like forest, carrying a stick with him just in case he needs to fend something off. His boots are not really doing much to protect his feet, and his whole body is soaked with melted snow.

  
Eventually the snow starts to become less deep and Xeno lets out a small sigh of relief. “Thank god,” he whispers to himself into his hands to warm them up. Despite the fact that he’s wearing gloves, his hands are still freezing. “Maybe that means I’m getting somewhere that’s NOT in the middle of the wilderness. Out here, I could get ki...” He shudders once again, this time not just because he’s cold, and doesn’t finish his sentence.

  
Suddenly, Xeno hears a noise from behind him. He gasps and turns to see what it is. _A stick broke. That’s all. Calm down, Xe. You’re fine..._ He hesitantly turns back the way he’s headed and tries to speed up his walking, wanting nothing more than to get out of this forest.

  
When he starts to hear an extra set of footsteps coming from behind him, he glances behind him again in fear. “Who’s there?!” No response. The footsteps had stopped. Frightened, he turns and starts to run through the snow as best he can. “It’s nothing... it’s just nothing... just get out of here and you’ll never have to think of any of this ever again...”

  
Finally he sees some structures that resemble bars of a cage, but are too far apart to stop him from getting through. That must mean that there’s at least SOME kind of society somewhere ahead. Whether they’re friendly or not… well, he’ll have to find out. Hopefully whatever seems to be behind him won’t be able to make it through the bars and-

  
A gloved hand suddenly grabs his shoulder and he freezes up, letting out a little squeal of terror. _Shit shit shit shit…!_ He shudders, knowing he’s been caught. He’d try and run, but… at this point, he deserves whatever’s coming to him. He hugs himself tighter, trying to make himself feel more secure and also to warm him up, then squeezes his eyes shut. _Okay, just… just get it over with…!_

  
The hand is removed from his shoulder and some rustling is heard. Xeno can’t tell what the monster is doing, but whatever it is, he knows he doesn’t like it. He braces himself for some kind of attack or a battle to begin, his heart pounding out of his chest already.

  
Suddenly, he feels something warm and fluffy wrap around him. His eyes blink open and he looks at what it is. The monster… put a fluffy blue jacket around him? He slowly reaches for it and pulls it closer and tighter around him, then turns his head to see who, or what, is behind him. His confused and almost relieved gaze falls on a short chubby-looking skeleton with a big, kind grin on his face. He’s wearing only a white tank top, black shorts with a white stripe down each leg, and fluffy pink slippers. On any other creature, the white dots shimmering against the blackness of his eye sockets would be pretty intimidating, but somehow on him it only seems to make him feel more… alive, perhaps? He comes across as a surprisingly amiable monster. “ hey,” he says, somehow without moving his mouth(or, well… teeth). “you look cold, buddy. never been in the cold, dangerous forest of snowdin before, huh?” His tone makes it seem like he was being sarcastic about the “dangerous” part in that sentence. Xeno looks over the skeleton for a second, then nods.

  
“Uh… yeah… I mean, no, I’ve never been here before.” He glances at the jacket, then at the skeleton’s tank top. “Now, YOU’RE the one who looks freezing. Shorts and a tank top? In THIS weather? You’re insane. Take your jacket back; at least I have long sleeves.” The skeleton shrugs, glancing away for a moment. “nah, don’t worry about it, bud. i'm a skeleton. i don’t get cold.” He gives Xeno a wink(despite not having eyelids to do that with). “after all, i'm already chilled to the bone.”

  
Hearing the joke, Xeno couldn’t help but smile, memories of Ravina coming to him. “Haha… ahahaha…! Wolfie… my friend Wolfie loves jokes like that.” He snuggles into the jacket, feeling more comfortable now than before. “I guess… you seem alright. No one who tells puns can be a bad person, right?” The skeleton chuckles and pats Xeno on the back, then starts leading him through the poorly-made bars. “exactly. so, even though you didn’t ask, how about i introduce myself? the name’s sans. sans the skeleton.” Xeno giggles at that last part. “Oh, wow, a skeleton? I never would have guessed. It’s not like I can clearly tell that you’re made of bones. And, oh, uh… I’m Xeno. Xeno the, uh… human… thing.”

  
Sans suddenly stops in his tracks and turns back to Xeno. “human? really?” He looks him over for a second. “…well, now that you mention it, i did think there was something kinda different about you. i guess you do kinda look like one.” He looks at Xeno’s antennae and chuckles. “heh heh… so, are all humans horny like that now?” Xeno blushes and twirls a bit of his hair around his finger; he knows that Sans was talking about his antennae. “Ehehe… uh, um… no…” he then adds in a hush, “but it’s true I can be that way sometimes…” He coughs out an “ahem” and blushes a bit more when Sans gives him a look that almost seems like he’s raising an eyebrow(that he doesn’t have) in interest. Suddenly Xeno finds himself wondering how skeletons reproduce… but quickly shoves that thought aside for more important and less creepy things. “Well… anyway… I’m actually only half human. I’m also a mind being, but, uh… you wouldn’t know what that is. It’s like… complicated. I’m a Voice but uh… too much to explain right now. I’m an alien from another universe is the easiest way to put it.” It’s only when Xeno notices a look of shock on Sans’s face that he realizes, “shit, I gave myself away again, didn’t I?” Sans doesn’t say anything for a moment then glances away and says, “wow… another universe, huh? that’s… well, uh… that sure is some claim, kid.”

  
“I’m not a kid,” Xeno says, half because he’s desperate to change to subject and also because it’s kind of bothering him that people keep calling him a kid. “I’m 21 years old. I’m not 10. Why do you people keep calling me ‘kid’ and ‘child’?” Sans chuckles(the subject change seems to have worked). “you look like a kid to me.”

  
“21 is not a child!” Xeno exclaims. “I am a fully grown adult!”

  
“well, an adult is just a big kid.”

  
“Oh, hush, you.”

  
Suddenly, another voice yells from somewhere past the bars. “SAAAAAAAAAANS!!” Xeno jumps in shock. “Holy shit who is that?!” Sans looks at him. “hey, language.” Xeno growls in frustration. “Oh, don’t tell me EVERYONE here is gonna pull that crap with me…” Sans shrugs “well, this is a kid-friendly place.” Xeno deadpans and turns to the smiling skeleton. “Are you fucking kidding me? No it is NOT. At ALL.” _I’ve seen some shit here, comedian,_ Xeno says in his mind.

  
Sans leads Xeno forward a bit more so that they’re in a more open snowfield with some kind of sentry post and a random… lamp, for whatever reason. Sans points to said random lamp. “ you can hide behind that conveniently-shaped lamp if you want. my bro’ll be here any second.” Xeno goes over to the lamp and stands behind it. “O-okay… is your brother gonna hurt me?” Sans shakes his head “nah, he’s harmless. but you know… you do seem to have a human soul, so…”

  
“What does having a human SOUL have to do with ANYTHING?!” Xeno hisses. Sans looks as if he’s about to respond to that when another skeleton shows up, making Xeno quickly retreat behind the lamp, which really IS conveniently shaped like Xeno. It even has antennae that look like his. How exactly this lamp almost looks as if it was designed to look like him is something Xeno will probably never know, but he actually finds it very flattering. _Looks fabulous,_ he thinks, smiling as he admires his own beauty being reflected in it. He then realizes that he’s admiring a lamp and that’s weird so he stops to listen to the conversation between Sans and his brother instead.

  
“ SANS!”

  
“yeah?”

  
“WHY AREN’T YOU WEARING YOUR JACKET?”

  
“i was too lazy to put it on.”

  
“YOU WERE WEARING IT JUST AN HOUR AGO WHEN I SAW YOU LAST!”

  
“i was too lazy to keep wearing it.”

  
“SANS, IT TAKES MORE EFFORT TO TAKE IT OFF THAN TO JUST LEAVE IT ON!”

  
“depends on the circumstance.”

  
“IN EVERY CIRCUMSTANCE! YOU ARE GOING TO FREEZE!”

  
“nah, don’t worry, bro. I’ll never be as cool as you.”

  
“SANS!! OH, WHATEVER. HAVE ANY HUMANS SHOWN UP YET?”

  
“i dunno, bro. Maybe you should check behind that lamp for one.”

  
“THAT LAMP IS NOT EVEN SHAPED LIKE A HUMAN! THERE COULD NEVER BE A HUMAN BEHIND THERE!”

  
“well, it’s pretty close. it might surprise you if you go look.”

  
“I DO NOT NEED TO ADMIRE YOUR ODD TASTES IN EXTERIOR DECORATING, BROTHER! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, ALREADY HAS PERFECT DECORATING SKILLS, AND I DO NOT THINK THAT LAMP GOES VERY WELL WITH THE SNOW.”

  
“really? then would you care to enlighten me on how i could do a better job?”

  
Ba-dum tsss.

  
“SAAAAAANS! NYEH! ANYWAY, YOU ARE CLEARLY SLACKING OFF AGAIN, SO YOUR AMAZING AND LOVABLE BROTHER IS HERE TO MOTIVATE YOU.”

  
“thanks, bro. but don’t worry about it. i’m on break.”

  
“YOU WERE ON BREAK AN HOUR AGO TOO!”

  
“this is my boneus for doing a skele-ton of work today already.”

  
Double ba-dum tsss.

  
“UGH! OH, FINE. YOU CAN KEEP BEING LAZY THEN. I AM OFF TO LOOK FOR HUMANS LIKE I AM SUPPOSED TO! AND SOON, UNDYNE WILL SEE HOW WELL I DO MY JOB AND WILL LET ME INTO THE ROYAL GUARD! NYEH HEH HEH!” Xeno hears the sound of footsteps running away and then Sans calls to him. “hey buddy. he left. you can stop unnecessarily cowering now.” Xeno frowns and peeks out from behind the lamp. “It was NOT unnecessary. I am scared of everything I see.”

  
“even the lamp you’re still hiding behind?” Sans says with an amused look on his face. Xeno sighs and steps away from the lamp. “No… it’s… well, I guess I am a LITTLE scared of it… but less so than a really loud skeleton who might want to kill me because I’m half human.” He adjusts the jacket Sans lent him(it’s just a bit big for him) and starts to wander off through the snow lands with Sans tagging along. “well, you don’t need to be afraid of Paps, kid. he really is harmless; i promise.” Xeno shrugs, still just a little unsure. He still isn’t quite sure what having a “human SOUL” has to do with anything…

  
Before he can ask Sans about that, he notices a small yellow shimmering mass of energy near a cluster of trees. He saw those in the Ruins too… but was too afraid of them to get too close. Instead of asking about the SOUL, he decides to ask about the energy thingie. “Hey, Sans,” he says, pointing to the light. “What’s that thingie?”

  
Sans looks at where Xeno’s pointing and stares for a while, then shrugs. “i beleaf that wood be a tree,” he says with a wink. “heh heh heh. they’re pretty common in this universe. you should probably get used to the sight of them.” Xeno rolls his eyes, but can’t resist letting a small chuckle slip out. “No, you funny bones. The thing in FRONT of the tree.” Sans looks back at the tree, staring at it for another while, then slowly starts to lower his gaze as if following a line from the tree to his feet, then looks back up at Xeno. “that would be a skeleton. i guess those don’t exist in your universe either. even if they do,” he points to himself. “i’m sure you couldn’t find any one of them more humerus than this one.”

  
Xeno facepalms and sighs, chuckling. “Oh. My god. Sans.” He huffs and walks over to the light, pointing at it with a lot of enthusiasm. “THIS THING is what I’m talking about. Stop using hilarious puns to avoid my question.” Sans looks directly at where Xeno is pointing, squints as if he can’t quite tell what it is, then shrugs. “i have snow idea what you’re taking about, kid.” He chuckles. “but, you really are just pointing at snow.”

  
Xeno’s arms drop and he frowns. “What.” He looks down at the star-like shimmers and glares at it. “I’ll get to the bottom of this.”

  
“do you want a shovel?” Sans asks, laughing. Xeno crosses his arms defiantly at him. “NO. I don’t need a SHOVEL. I’m not talking about the SNOW. It’s this yellow thingie here.”

  
“oh, then you probably shouldn’t step in that part of the snow.”

  
“SAAAAAAANS!” Xeno groans. “It’s not PISS! It’s too shiny for that!” Sans shrugs. “magic.” Xeno rolls his eyes and sighs. “You’re very funny, Sans. But I’m seriously confused about what this is.” He taps it with his foot to point at it and when he makes contact with it a large black two-dimensional box with white edges appears in the sky in front of his eyes. He squeaks in shock and stumbles back a few steps, hitting his back on a tree as text appears in the box.

  
***(Laughing at your new friend’s jokes fills you with sincerity.)**

  
Xeno quietly reads the message aloud and, after doing so, the box changes to show some sort of empty file and the words “SAVE” and “RETURN” at the bottom. He reads this aloud too, confusion in his tone of voice. “Um… o… kay...?” Save is a good word… Save me, please… He hesitantly reaches out to the word SAVE and taps it quickly, afraid that something bad is going to happen. Luckily, it seems that it just changed the empty file to be… well, not so empty anymore. It now says Xeno’s name, “LV5”, some sort of number that looks like time, and “Snowdin – Box Road.” He isn’t quite sure what much of that means, but the thing doesn’t seem to be killing him. He’d ask Sans what it all means, but CLEARLY he’s clueless.

  
The box disappears and Xeno looks over at Sans, who is still smiling as he always seems to be, but there does appear to be something else in his expression. Confusion? Worry? Shock? Maybe a mixture of all three? Xeno can’t blame him though. Sans probably couldn’t see the box that appeared just like he can’t seem to see the light. In his eyes, Xeno probably looks insane. He twirls some hair around his fingers, blushing in embarrassment. “Um… so… that was probably really crazy-looking, huh? I, um… y’know. Other universe stuff. You wouldn’t get it... Hahaha…” Even his laugh came out sounding really awkward there. Right as Sans looked as if he was about to say something, Xeno cuts him off and starts to walk away. “So, like… let’s just…. Move on, shall we?”

  
Xeno takes a few nervous steps through the forest path, assuming that Sans is following close behind. _He probably thinks I’m a fucking weirdo,_ Xeno thinks to himself.

  
After walking a little ways down the path, he is pulled out of his thoughts when he hears a familiar voice in front of him. “ BROTHER, SERIOUSLY. WHERE IS YOUR JACKET? GO GET IT RIGHT NOW!” Xeno gasps and stops in place when he hears Papyrus in front of him. He looks up and sees him standing and talking to Sans… Wait, wasn’t Sans behind me? He turns around and looks behind him. Sans had somehow passed him. “Uh, okay…” He turns back to see that Papyrus is no longer wearing his cape-scarf thingie. He had apparently taken it off to wrap it around Sans’s neck. Sans shrugs and plays around with it. “seriously, paps, don’t worry about me. i promise i’m not cold.“

  
Papyrus sighs and glances in Xeno’s direction for a moment, then back at Sans, then realizes what he just saw and turns back to Xeno. “OH MY GOD!!” He exclaims, throwing his arms up in shock. “LOOK! I FOUND YOUR JACKET!” He lowers his arms and narrows his eyes at Xeno. “AND IT APPEARS TO HAVE COME TO LIFE AND POSSESSED THAT INNOCENT BYSTANDER.” He turns to Sans and crosses his arms. “HOW DARE YOU LET THIS HAPPEN, BROTHER! YOU NEED TO KEEP YOUR JACKET UNDER CONTROL!” He turns back to Xeno, smiling as he points dramatically at him. “FEAR NOT, YOUNG MONSTER CHILD! I, THE GREAT AND POWERFUL PAPYRUS AND SOON-TO-BE NEWEST MEMBER OF THE ROYAL GUARD, SHALL SAVE YOU FROM MY BROTHER’S INABILITY TO KEEP HIS JACKET ON HIS BODY!”

  
As Papyrus rambles on, Xeno can’t help but chuckle a bit. These two skeletons really don’t seem all that bad. After a short talk, Papyrus walks over to Xeno and picks him up, but when he looks at the skeleton’s innocent and smiling face he actually doesn’t feel an ounce of fear for his life. Xeno happily allows Papyrus to carry him through the forest, having nice fun chats and enjoying some puzzles and puns along the way.

  
Perhaps things are going to be okay after all.

 

**|\vvv/|**

 

“Geno, come out here!” Ravina calls as he walks with his arms crossed through a field of dust in the Starnight Universe, letting his rainbow tail drag along the ground and his long red hair coming from behind his ears flow in the desolate wind. “I know you’re nearby. I can smell you… and I really don’t like that stench.”

  
After a minute, he starts to hear some bickering from behind a nearby rock. He stops where he is and looks at the rock. “I can hear you back there. Come out.” Geno laughs and pops his head out from behind the rock. “Okay, I’m gay,” he jokes. “But you already know that very well, don’t ya? Skrehehehe!” He chuckles again and comes out of hiding, dragging Nosa out too by the collar of his shirt. Nosa lets out a small grunt at the harshness of the jerk and stumbles, grabbing onto Geno’s shirt so he doesn’t fall to the ground, then quickly stands up and lets go of Geno, who glares at him for doing that. “Don’t touch me, you worthless little piece of shit.” Nosa averts his eyes in shame and Wolf cuts off anything more they were going to say.

  
“Yes, yes,” he says with a dismissive hand motion. “I get it; you have a very complicated and strange relationship. You don’t have to show off every time I come here.” Nosa speaks in a barely audible voice without looking up at the wolf. “He’s not showing off…” Geno gives him a quick and violent slap to the back of his head. “I never gave you permission to speak to him. You better stay FUCKING silent or I swear-.”

  
“Will you two BOTH shut up?” Ravina growls, wanting nothing more than to get this over with. He hates coming here to talk to Geno, but he has to come talk to him whenever Xeno goes missing because he oftentimes ends up here. If he IS here, Geno typically knows it, and usually knows if he’s gone back home yet. There have been a couple times when Wolf has just barely missed Xeno and when he goes back to look, Xeno’s back in his bed, cowering in fear and traumatized by memories of here. Ravina always has to stay there overnight to comfort him. He doesn’t mind staying, of course, since it’s for Xeno. He has to make sure he’s alright. If anything happens to Xeno… Wolf makes it his top priority to find a way to fix it.

  
“Well,” Geno growls, facing Ravina but eyes looking down at Nosa. “Just tell me what you want this time.” Ravina narrows his eyes slightly. “Don’t give me that. You know EXACTLY why I’m here. Where’s Xeno?” Geno shrugs, smirking at the wolf. “Hell if I know. Back to your place again, I’d guess.” Wolf sighs. “So he WAS here, I assume. Must’ve just missed him then. Guess he’s home now.” Geno shrugs. “Skrehehe. He’s not home. THAT’S not his home. His home is HERE…” He grins, showing off his sharp vampire teeth, and hisses. “With ME.”

  
“NO,” Wolf growls in response, faster than he normally responds to things. “He does NOT belong here. Not anymore.” Geno laughs, then runs his tongue along his fangs. “Well, I see I struck a nerve, didn’t I️?” Ravina sighs and turns to leave. “Oh, whatever... I’m leaving.” This statement elicits a whine of disappointment from Geno, who was hoping Wolf would stay and have some fun with him. Before heading back, Ravina glances back at Nosa. “Y’know, Nosa,” he says, noticing only a very slight reaction in Nosa. “You really DON’T have to stay with him. I can bring you to my universe too. I’m sure Xeno’d love to have you as a friend.”

  
Geno growls at Wolf, grabbing onto Nosa tighter. “Keep him out of this,” he spits at the wolf. “I changed my mind. You need to LEAVE. NOW.” Ravina crosses his arms. “You hush. Nosa, look. You don’t HAVE to stay here. You don’t have to let him use you like he does. I guarantee you: if you just say you want to be free, I CAN, and WILL, get you away from Geno. Come on, man. We’d love to have you.”

  
Both Ravina and Geno stare down at Nosa, who lifts his head slightly to look back and forth between the two of them. He is silent for a long while, then he bares his fangs at Wolf and growls out quietly, “you don’t want me in your universe... Go away…”

  
It takes Ravina a moment to accept that answer, staring into Nosa’s cold, almost dead eyes to make sure there really is nothing left in there, no desire for freedom left at all, and then sighs. “Alright then. Suit yourself, corpse kid.” He quickly cracks open the rift in the dark energy with Borderline Breaking and slips through it, not wanting to stay in the apocalyptic world any longer than he really felt had to.

 

**~*^^*~**

 

After spending many hours of fun, enjoyable time with the skeleton brothers, Xeno had finally started to feel truly at home in the Underground. His time with… he can’t even think her name anymore. It’s far too painful… but it’s hard to feel welcomed when the one who welcomed you is… well…

  
Anyway, Xeno spent the whole rest of the day hanging with Papyrus and Sans. Mostly Papyrus, because Sans kind of disappeared after a while. Papyrus told Xeno there’s no reason to worry about Sans; apparently he does this all the time. He just kind of disappears for a while, presumably going to be lazy in a new and exciting location that he hasn’t lazed in before. Sans’s dream is to leave his dirty socks and empty ketchup packets in every location in the world someday. At least, that’s Papyrus’s theory.

  
Papyrus had happily invited Xeno to come over and stay at his and Sans's home in Snowdin Town. When he looked around the town as Papyrus carried him through it, many of the strange monsters turned to look at him. At first he felt uncomfortable about being stared at like that, but he started to warm up a bit when a familiar dog(this dog in particular is Lesser Dog) came out of a building marked "Grillby's." Lesser Dog took one look at Xeno and started to bark like a maniac, just like he did when Xeno had pet him earlier. His neck began to stretch out and within seconds a whole bunch of dogs were pouring out of the building, all of which Xeno recognized as the ones he met earlier. He had pet all of them at some point. They all paraded towards Xeno and Papyrus, who dropped Xeno to the ground and threw his arms up. "NOOO DON'T GNAW AND DROOL ON MY BONES AGAIN!!!"

  
Xeno was plopped down into the snow and shuddered at the cold snow soaking his ass. "And now my ass is frozen again," he says to himself. He starts to stand up again, but is quickly knocked over by ALL THE DOGS climbing on top of him to lick and cuddle him. He certainly didn’t feel very cold anymore, as he was literally completely surrounded by dogs. He wasn’t even touching the snow anymore; Greater Dog was laying on his back, having jumped out of his armor, and Xeno was laying on top of him, the dog didn’t seem to mind this at all, as he just licked and pawed at Xeno from under him. A chorus of barks and woofs rung throughout the town and the townspeople seemed significantly less threatening as they smile, laugh and "aww" at the scene. Papyrus had seemed as if he was about to run away earlier, but once he saw the dogs assault Xeno with love he calmed down. "OH, THEY JUST WANTED TO PLAY WITH YOU," he says. "THAT IS MUCH BETTER THAN STEALING MY BONES LIKE THEY USUALLY TRY TO DO." Xeno can’t help but laugh at the entire situation and he tries to pet the dogs as best he can, considering he only has two hands.

  
Finally, after what was probably AT LEAST an hour of petting, all the dogs have plopped themselves down on the snowy blanket covering the ground and fallen asleep. Xeno's hands are tired from all the love he just gave them. He, too, is plopped face-first in the snow. "Oh my god that was the most intense petting session I’ve ever had..." Xeno says into the snow. He sits himself up and looks around, noticing that Papyrus has seemingly left. For a second he felt almost betrayed, but the feeling quickly vanished when he sees the skeleton poke his head out of another nearby building.

  
“OH, THE DOGS HAVE STOPPED ATTACKING YOU!" He says happily, coming out of the building with a couple grocery bags and Sans asleep in his arms. When he sees Xeno, he puts the bags down and plops Sans onto the ground, who grunts and groggily wakes up as Papyrus runs over to Xeno. "THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS VERY RELIEVED TO SEE THAT YOU ARE ALRIGHT. THOSE DOGS ARE VICIOUS, I SAY!" He reaches down to pick up Xeno, who gratefully cuddles up to him. Papyrus turns to his brother, who is now sitting up in the snow and looking around as if to get his bearings on where he is. "BROTHER!" Papyrus calls to him, getting a "huh?" from him in response.

  
"CAN YOU CARRY THE GROCERIES HOME? I AM CARRYING OUR GUEST." Sans looks at him, smiling as usual and gives Papyrus a thumbs up. "sure thing, bro." He stands and picks up the bags, then walks in the completely wrong direction and into a little alleyway. "Where is he going?" Xeno asks himself aloud.

  
"HE'S TAKING A SHORTCUT," Papyrus explains as he carries Xeno once again. Xeno looks up at Papyrus. "I CAN walk, y'know..." Papyrus stops in place. "NONSENSE! YOU ARE THE GUEST! I DO NOT WANT YOU TO WASTE YOUR ENERGY ON SOMETHING AS SILLY AS WALKING! AS A GUEST, YOU DESERVE TO BE ALLOWED TO BE AS LAZY AS MY BROTHER, AND I WILL MAKE SURE THAT YOU ARE!" Xeno laughs at this; Papyrus is too sweet for words.

 

**~*^^*~**

 

Later that day, Xeno and Sans were sitting on the couch together in the skeleton brother’s home. Xeno, still with Sans’s jacket wrapped around him, was leaning into Sans, half cuddling with him. Sans was slumped down in his seat, relaxing and lazing around as usual with one arm over his (nonexistent) stomach and the other around Xeno’s shoulder, filling Xeno with content and easing his mind after all the shit that’s been going through his mind ever since… well, he’ll try not to think of it right now.

  
The way the two of them are sitting, snuggled up together like this, reminds Xeno of when he and Wolf would do this all the time. Usually Xeno can notice similarities between Ravina and others, but something about Sans just reminds him of Wolf even more than usual. There’s the puns, obviously, and they’re also both pretty lazy sometimes... Sans is also just so nice to him, even when they first met and Xeno was honestly terrified of what kind of monster was stalking him. There’s gotta be more similarities that Xeno can find, but he can’t really think about it at the moment; he's really starting to doze off now. Maybe it’s the feel of the Sans's fluffy jacket around him combined with the fact that he sees plenty of similarities between the two that is making Xeno feel as if he's back at home, cuddling with Wolfie as he always used to love.

  
"H-hey, Wolfie...?" Xeno says absentmindedly to Sans. Both skeletons look at him, Papyrus peeking out from the kitchen for a moment, and he blushes, sitting up and staring at Sans in embarrassment. He's a bit more awake now. "I-I, uh... sorry..." He sinks down into the couch, drawing the jacket around him tighter. "You're... not... him... I know..."

  
Xeno pulls the hood of the jacket over his face and curls up to hide. He really just misses Wolfie... if he was here, Xeno would be able to sit here on the skeleton brother's couch and cuddle with them both, completely happy and carefree. There’d be nothing to worry about since Wolfie knows how to take care of them both just fine, and always exudes so much confidence when they’re off "multiverse surfing." It’s funny; last time Xeno found himself wandering back to the broken Starnight Universe before this whole adventure began, Wolfie came to get him as usual. Xeno had been carried back home, Wolf whispering words of encouragement and gentle reassurances, holding Xeno tightly as they laid together in Xeno's bed. Xeno was crying nonstop into the soft fur of Wolf's chest and was gripping tightly onto the fur on his back with shaking hands. Xeno after the fact apologized for pulling so hard on him, but Wolfie said he didn’t even notice it, so it’s okay.

  
Xeno was just spouting whatever came to his mind in his traumatized and frantic state; it was probably all nonsense. He probably said something about hating himself, because Xeno recalls Wolf repeating "I love you, don’t say that" a bunch of times in response to something. The memory of Wolf fills Xeno with a sense of longing to return home... so he could hear Wolf's words again.

  
The one thing that shocked Xeno the most though when he was breaking down in Wolf's arms was the statement he made about traveling to new universes. "Y'know, Xe," Wolfie's voice echoes in his memories. "Whenever we go to other universes, I can sense your discontent. You're worried about things... things that you could do. You KNOW that you're stronger than them all. And I can see that you're afraid of being on your own there. The fact that the universe itself is naturally weaker than you scares you more than if it was stronger, doesn't it? And that's because... you know that it would be way too easy... to kill them by accident. And I know you don't wanna be... like him." Xeno snuggled closer into Wolf's fur, whimpering quietly. Wolf sighed and ran his fingers gently through Xeno's hair. "Sorry... I'm only saying this because I want you to know that... without you... with me, I'm... susceptible to that too. I always return from a trip with you, wondering what would happen if you weren't there."

  
That was one of the rare times that Wolf ever admitted to a fear. In Wolf's own kind of roundabout way, he just admitted how scared he is to lose Xeno. That's what must have prompted Wolf to say that. The fear of losing Xeno must have been making his mind race with possibilities of different timelines where he was too late to save Xeno... he would never go so far to admit to it, but Wolf would be lost without him. They've been together for years now... no matter what Wolf says, Xeno knows that Wolf really loves Xeno just as much as Xeno loves Wolf. Xeno shakily pries his face away from Wolf's chest and, after wiping at his teary eyes, reaches up to Wolf's face to pull him down into a kiss. He knows that his lips are probably salty like the tears, but he knows that Wolfie doesn't mind. He smiles into the kiss, starting to feel better as his mind starts to clear...

  
And he remembers that at that moment, Xeno was actually too confused and tired to kiss Wolfie. He had fallen asleep in his arms then. He was actually just altering the memory at that point... and he pulls back from Sans's face which is blushing a deep blue. After a second, he tries to find something to say. "uh, i had... no idea you, uh, felt that way, buddy,” Sans says. “this is a bit sudden... but i guess i can go along with it if it’d make you happy." Xeno would have expected Sans to make a pun there, but he didn't. He was probably too caught off guard by the sudden kiss; Xeno can't blame him. He wasn't expecting that either, honestly. His face flushes a deep red and his antennae stick up in shock. "UH, SORRY I DIDN'T MEAN TO, UH, w-well, um, uh... I, uh, yeah sure, ehehe, I-I mean I k-kinda...!" He twirls some of his hair around his finger, unable to make eye contact with the skeleton. "W-well, I mean... if you WANT to, we could... um... y'know, you ARE kinda... um..."

  
Xeno's embarrassed rambling is cut off by Papyrus calling them from the other room. "ESTEEMED GUEST OF THE GREAT PAPYRUS! AND SANS, YOU TOO! DINNER IS READY!" Xeno has never been so relieved to hear that dinner is ready. That is so convenient, he thinks. _Thank god for Papy..._ He enthusiastically jumps off the couch and practically sprints towards the kitchen. "Comiiiiiiiing~!" Sans chuckles at Xeno's quick response to the call and lazily slides off the couch, following behind Xeno.

  
Xeno excitedly jumps into his seat, which is clearly marked by a little homemade name card with the words “ THIS SEAT IS FOR MY MOST AMAZING GUEST XENO” written on it. It’s decorated with little yellow stars, pink bows and purple glitter on it, designed with about the artistic genius of a six-year-old child. It’s a mess, honestly. Xeno picks it up and examines it, smiling despite how poorly-made it is. He doesn’t know when Papyrus took the time to make it, but Xeno thinks it’s adorable nonetheless.

  
Papyrus places a big dish of spaghetti on the table, a pair of tongs in it so they can each take as much as they want from the big plate. When he notices Xeno looking at the name card he made, Papyrus puts his hands together and looks at Xeno with a big bright smile on his face. “OH! I MADE THAT FOR YOU! YOU LOOK LIKE YOU LIKE SHINY THINGS AND BOWS, SO I DECORATED IT WITH STUFF I THOUGHT YOU WOULD LIKE. SO… DO YOU LIKE IT?” Xeno doesn’t hesitate at all to give his answer. “I LOVE it!” He exclaims, seeing Papyrus’s expression light up with joy.

  
“WOWIE!” He says in excitement. “YOU DO? WELL, I WORKED VERY HARD ON IT! I PUT MY ENTIRE SOUL INTO IT! NYEH HEH HEH HEH!!”

  
“if you put your soul into the name card,” Sans says, sitting next to Xeno and leaning his elbows on the table and resting his head in his hands. “then what did you put into the pasta?”

  
“MY HEART, OF COURSE!” Papyrus says as he plops himself into his seat. Xeno gasps jokingly, holding his hand over his heart. “Papyrus, does that mean you don’t love me as much as pasta?!” Papyrus jumps at this. “NYEH?!” Xeno laughs at his reaction, and Papyrus dramatically raises a forkful of spaghetti into the air. “I’LL HAVE YOU KNOW THAT I DO INDEED LOVE YOU VERY MUCH! AND I APOLOGIZE FOR LYING TO YOU. I DID NOT ACTUALLY PUT MY SOUL INTO YOUR GIFT, NOR DID I PUT MY HEART INTO THIS SPAGHETTI. I SAID IT AS A FIGURE OF SPEECH. BUT IF I COULD HAVE DONE SO WITHOUT DYING, I WOULD DEFINITELY HAVE PUT BOTH MY HEART AND SOUL INTO YOUR GIFT.” Xeno laughs as he takes some pasta and places it on his plate. “I know, Papy. I love you too.”

 

**~*^^*~**

 

It’s the dead of night when Xeno wakes up screaming in bed. He quickly sits up and huddles into the corner, back to the back board of the bed and smushing his body against the wall. He hid his face in his dust-drenched hands and cried into them. Footsteps quickly approach his room and the door is slammed open, the light from the hallway breaking into the darkness.  
“My child! Are you okay?!”

  
Xeno slowly and hesitantly peeks out from hiding in his shame and snivels. “M-mama… I’m sc-scared…” It takes Toriel no time at all to rush to Xeno’s bed and climb in, and Xeno wastes no time lunging at her to throw his arms around her and hide in her embrace. She whispers “shh” and “you’re okay” to him over and over, holding him tightly in one arm and gently petting his head with the other. “Everything will be alright, my child,” she says as he slowly lifts his watery eyes, shimmering with guilt, to stare up at her smiling face. “There is nothing to be afraid of here. It was only a bad dream, and you have finally woken up. I am here for you, my child. I will never let any harm be done to you.”

  
In a quiet voice, Xeno squeaks out “I love you…” and Toriel leans down to give him a kiss on the forehead. “I love you too…”  
As Xeno clutches at Toriel’s dress, Xeno feels the shadows of his sins manifesting around his fingers and begin to engulf him. The darkness slithers and expands around his entire hand and slowly begins to make its way down his forearm. He gasps and tries to scream at Toriel to leave before something happened to her, but the lovely sin simply bubbled in his throat; all he could do what struggle out a terrified squeak as he was smothered in the gruesome love.

  
Toriel’s form slowly began to disintegrate and blood starts to drip form an open wound on her torso that Xeno finds his hand reaching into against his will. The sin draws his hand deeper and deeper into Toriel’s dripping and pulsing guts and his shaking fingers coil around one thing in particular.

  
Finally, Xeno manages to let out a deafening scream of disgust and terror as he tears Toriel’s empty white SOUL from her body, ripping her open even more just before her body collapses into dust, a pool of blood staining the bed and Xeno’s memories. The SOUL in his hands, dripping blood and little white droplets of itself onto the dust and blood of what was once the SOUL’s body, was beating and pulsating rapidly and unevenly as if afraid. Xeno feels his stomach churn and twist in disgust as drops of the white translucent SOUL residue rolls down his arms. Bile rises into his throat, but the sins in his throat prevents him from throwing up, and from breathing at all.

  
Suddenly a pair of arms wrap around his chest and in his shock he grips the SOUL too tightly. For a split second he sees it shatter into a million tiny, shimmering memory fragments…

  
And his eyes snap open to see the faces of two worried skeletons in front of him. Sans actually isn’t smiling right now; Xeno wasn’t sure if that was possible for him. Papyrus was holding onto Xeno’s shoulders; he had probably shook Xeno awake.  
Xeno’s first thought was to reach out to them both for a hug, but before he could do that he realized that the gag of sin that was holding back the bile in his throat was gone now. He slaps away Papyrus’s hands and tries to push through them to run to the trash can nearby, but in his nightmare-traumatized state, can’t keep his balance to stand and collapses on the ground. Sans kneels down to try and lift him up, and Xeno tries to shove him away before he accidentally throw up on him.  
Well, it was still a bit too late. He tries to cover his mouth and hold it in but he ends up just vomiting on the floor. Papyrus rushes to the kitchen to get the trash can that Xeno was trying to get to.

  
Everything else from then on is a blur. He recalls what was basically his body trying to physically vomiting his sins out of his body, a large portion of that ending up on the carpet of the skeleton brother’s living room, and then once that was over he was brought upstairs and into the bathroom to get cleaned up from that. He remembers Sans saying something about his SOUL, then he woke up to the beams of morning light from outside assaulting his face as he gasps and sits up in an unfamiliar bed.

  
Xeno groans and claws at his face in shame. “Oh my god…” he says to himself in a shaking voice. “Why… why did that have to happen NOW? Why HERE?” He then feels a shift in the bed and jumps, turning to see what it is.

  
“you’re up,” says Sans, who was apparently sleeping beside him. “so… are you okay…?” Xeno instinctively nods, even though after the fact he admits that that isn’t true at all. Sans immediate recognizes this. “don’t lie to me, bud. i know there’s something wrong. you can tell me what it is. we are friends after all, right?”

  
Xeno averts his eyes from the skeleton. Yes, they are friends. But… there’s no way he could tell Sans about… what happened to Toriel. They ARE friends, but that friendship certainly won’t last much longer if Sans finds out that the day they had met, it was less an hour after Xeno had… killed someone… He takes a deep breath and tells Sans that it was just a nightmare that he had seen his friends die. He does have nightmares quite a lot, so it’s not a lie for him to say that it was pretty common, but this one was specifically about an event that took place just yesterday… and THAT was something he could never admit to anyone. Except maybe Wolfie… He sighs and cuddles up against Sans.

  
He’s going to leave later today.

 

**|\vvv/|**

 

Ravina slams open the door of Xeno’s house, his heart pounding with worry. “Xeno?!” He storms into the house, checking every room just in case Xeno collapsed somewhere besides his bed.

  
Nothing at all.

  
Ravina growls, trying to keep his cool as best as possible. “That doesn’t make sense,” he says to himself. “If he’s not in the Starnight Universe, he’s GOTTA be here…” After a second sweep of the empty house, the wolf starts to just pace around Xeno’s bedroom, his fingers on his chin giving him a pensive look. “Did Geno lie? He hasn’t lied to me yet about Xeno’s whereabouts. Why would he start now? Well, no, it makes sense that he’d lie. If he just wants to get me away, he’d tell me he’s not there so I don’t find him. It’s smart… but he usually just tells me. Should I go back and look anyway…?” He lets out a quiet roar and whips out his phone, dialing up Pyro.

  
Ring… ring… “Yes, Ravina?” His voice sounds just as monotone and bored as ever. Ravina continues to pace around the room as he talks. “Pyro! Have you heard any word about Xeno?”

  
“No. Nothing.”

  
“God. Fucking. Dammit…”

  
“Calm down, I’m sure he’s fine.”

  
“I’m calm.”

  
“No you’re not. At all.” Ravina takes a deep breath and plops himself down on Xeno’s neat and well-made bed. “…Yeah, I guess you’re right. I’m… just worried, y’know? I knew something like this would happen someday…”

  
Suddenly, Ravina’s phone vibrates to indicate that he’s getting another call. “Uh… it’s the MCIF. Sorry Pyro, I should take this.” Before he can respond, Ravina hangs up the call to Pyro and answers the one from the MCIF HQ. It’s possible that they could have information about Xeno. “Agent Ravina here. ‘Sup?”

  
“Sir!” The voice over the phone says. “Sir, you’ll never believe this! Do you remember the fluctuations of the energy levels that were discovered other day by our scanners?” Ravina says yes and the scientist continues. “Well, as we all know, there was some sort of distortion in the Void; a strange anomaly appeared on the radar near an unexplored universe. Well, today we sent out a small team to collect some samples of Dark Matter from the area where the fluctuations were recorded, and when they were brought back they discovered that it was alive!”

  
Hearing this, Ravina jumps up off the bed. “What?! That’s possible?! There’s something ALIVE out there in the Void?! Just… drifting without Saikik energy protection?!”

  
“And there’s more!” The scientist continues. “You need to come here immediately and see this! We gathered as much of the miracle organisms as we could, and they kept melting together until… well… it’s some sort of person… they’re unconscious right now, but… we think they’re alive and could wake up at any second.” Ravina growls; this wasn’t what he was hoping for exactly, but this is important too. “Hold your butt. I’m coming to HQ.” He practically punches the end call button and throws it back into the Saikik storage in the glowing red X symbols on his shoulders. He stretches his wings as he leaves Xeno’s house and breaks open a pathway to HQ. “Let’s hurry up and see how THIS plays out…”


	3. It’s Too Dark to See Sometimes

After Xeno showers(he still felt dirty after the... events of the previous night) and gets himself dressed, he begins to head downstairs for breakfast and coffee, but he pauses when he notices that the carpet is gone. He sighs, feeling guilt start to creep back into his gut. "Right... That’s because of me..." He hugs himself tight and keeps his head slightly lowered as he descends the rest of the stairs.

  
He walks into the kitchen and sees Sans(still not wearing his jacket) sitting at the table, staring at a pan on the stove that was cooking scrambled eggs and bacon. For a split second Xeno thought he saw a spatula levitating around the pan and Sans's eye glowing blue... but he was probably just imagining it. When he sees Xeno walk in, Sans looks at Xeno and gives him a small, lazy wave. "heya bud. feeling any better?" Xeno shrugs, forcing out a small smile. "I’m okay. Um... the food... smells good." Sans slides out of the seat and walks over to the stove. "thanks. i'm working eggstra hard on them."

  
Xeno can’t help but chuckle a bit at the joke; surely if anyone can make Xeno feel better, it would be Sans with his puns and Papyrus with his... Papyrus-ness. He mindlessly plays around with his hair as he watches Sans work on cooking the food, his eyes turned to Xeno to see what he'll say in response to the joke. "Well," says Xeno, taking a few steps towards the skeleton. "That was okay... but I’ve heard better." He gives Sans a playful pat on the back. “Wolfie makes punny egg yolks too."

  
Sans seems a little surprised that Xeno made a joke back, but definitely is pleased despite how stupid it was. "hey, guess your mood's moving over to the sunny side now, huh?" Xeno laughs and rolls his eyes. "Oh, you. Yeah... your jokes do make me smile. And I don’t mean to keep egging you on, but you’re not making sunny side up eggs." Sans chuckles and shrugs. "yeah, that’s true." He turns and gives Xeno a wink. "i might be just a little bit scrambled up this morning."

  
The two friends laugh together at their egg jokes as Papyrus skips into the kitchen. “IS THAT THE SOUND OF MY WONDERFUL AND BEAUTIFUL GUEST LAUGHING I HEAR?” He says happily. Xeno turns to him and waves. “Hi Papy! Where were you?”

  
“THE GREAT PAPYRUS WAS WASHING THE RUG,” he says. “BUT IT IS ALL BACK TO NORMAL NOW THANKS TO MY INCREDIBLE CLEANING SKILLS!” His tone seems slightly less excited than usual but is still trying to stay as normal as possible for Xeno. He was clearly hoping that Xeno wouldn’t ask about the rug or what he was just doing, since he knew Xeno’d start to feel bad again. Well, he was right… but Xeno forces himself to push his guilt aside. For Papyrus’s sake. He can’t let Papyrus feel like he triggered any bad feelings in him. He smiles at the tall skeleton and gives him a thumbs up. “Well, I guess I’m not surprised that you’re amazing at cleaning. You DO live with Sans, after all.” Sans glances at him. “hey…” Xeno laughs. “Sorry! But you ARE kinda a mess! Seriously, your room is RIDICULOUS! A trash tornado? I don’t even know how you did that!” Sans chuckles. “that is called recycling, buddy. i turned all that garbage into a self-sustaining work of art.” Xeno rolls his eyes, smiling. “Sure, you can call it that.”

  
The three of them eat breakfast together with minimal tension given last night’s events, and then the three of them disperse to go do their own thing. Papyrus heads outside, saying that he’ll be back soon so don’t go too far, and Sans heads up to his room. Xeno considers following him and cuddling for a little bit, but decides that he needs to get out for just a little while. He does plan on leaving later… but not quite yet. He’ll probably stay for lunch and then head out. Or maybe sooner… Well, he’ll at least wait until Papyrus returns home so he can say goodbye.

  
Xeno pulls on Sans’s jacket(Sans said that he can wear it all he’d like while he’s staying with them), slips on his boots and heads outside. He isn’t quite sure where he’s going… he really just wants to go for a nice relaxing walk around Snowdin Town. He playfully puffs out air, watching it come out as a mist in the cold but kind air of the town. He stuffs his hands in the pockets of the jacket and feels some things crinkle inside them. Curious, he pulls out one of the items and looks at it. Ketchup packets. He chuckles and shoves it back in the pocket. “I am not surprised one bit.”

  
As he walks through the streets of Snowdin, listening to the sound of his footsteps in the snow and the voices of monsters talking and living out their lives, Xeno starts to really feel like having a nice smoke to calm down and forget about the events of earlier the previous day and last night. He isn’t sure if marijuana is legal here in the Underground… or if it even exits in this universe. Well, just in case, he ducks into an alleyway near Grillby’s and takes out a joint that he was hiding. Like Ravina, Xeno also has a special symbol on his body(for him, it’s a small red star on his chest) that has Saikik power and can be used to store things in, but since his Saikik isn’t working right now he can’t use it. He always likes to be prepared for that, so he always keeps some of his weed in his pocket. But not his phone. That’s stuck in his symbol where he can’t get to it. Clearly he has his priorities in order.

  
_Well, even if I had the phone,_ Xeno thinks to himself as he puffs out some smoke. _It doesn’t make calls to other universes anyway. The Multiverse Institutions haven’t created inter-universal phone calls yet. They’re working on it, but not quite yet. So the phone really wouldn’t help me here._

  
After taking some time to get high and relax for a while, Xeno starts to feel hungry again so he heads back to the skelebro’s house, stopping at a SAVE point on the way. Truthfully, he doesn’t know if these things are doing him any good, but just in case they’re doing something he decided that he’d use them. They’re there, after all. Might as well use them as long as they aren’t killing him.

  
He swings open the door to the skeleton brother’s house and playfully calls out to Sans. “Sansy~! I’m baaaack!” Xeno shuts the door behind has as a thump is heard from Sans’s room, as if something(probably Sans himself)just plopped onto the floor. “oh, xeno!” Some movement is heard from the room and after a bit Sans pokes his head out.

  
“ heya, buddy,” he says. “welcome home.” Xeno has already ascended the stairs, curious to find out what Sans was up to. “Heya to you too. So…” He gives Sans a playful boop on the nose(or where a nose would be if Sans had one). “What were YOU doing all alone in your room, huh?” Sans shrugs. “oh, nothing. you can come on in if you want.” Xeno happily accepts the offer and skips into his room. “I’d love to!”

  
The two of them go over to Sans’s bed and flop down onto it. Xeno rolls over to face Sans and slides his hand onto his chest, playfully tapping at his ribs through his tank top. “But like… c’mon, Sansy. Tell me what you were doing in here! You made me really curious, y’know.” Sans shrugs and lazily places one hand over Xeno’s, the two of them linking their fingers and palms together. “really, it was nothing. if it was something really important, i promise i’d tell you.” Xeno rolls his eyes. “Oh, okay. You keep your little secrets if you want.”

  
Xeno and Sans lay there for probably about an hour, most likely. Sans practically pulled a hot dog out of his ass(not literally. Xeno just doesn’t know where he got it from) and gave it to Xeno since he said he was kinda hungry. Xeno would have preferred some delicious extra mushroom pizza with a nice cold TaB soda, but he can’t complain about free food from a cute little smiley skeleton. He just hopes that he didn’t LITERALLY get it from his… pelvis…? He doesn’t actually HAVE an ass, now that Xeno thinks about it. _Do skeletons shit?_ He thinks, his mind wandering to the strangest places. _How do they work?_

  
Also, Sans totally caught onto the fact that Xeno was high. His red eyes were even redder than usual and he was acting just a bit more laid back… not to mention that fact that he smelled like weed which was a dead giveaway. But honestly, Sans doesn’t mind. If it makes Xeno seem to temporarily forget about his fears and Xeno isn’t hurting himself, then Sans figures he can smoke whatever the hell he wants. After all, Xeno definitely seems happier now, so it can’t be that bad.

  
After a while, Xeno notices Sans starting to doze off a bit. He considers taking a nap too… but he does kind of have to leave soon. Well, he doesn’t REALLY have to… Truthfully, Xeno really wants to stay here with Sans and Papyrus. After completely fucking up his last living arrangement he had in the Underground… he’s a bit scared to try anything that might accidentally destroy this too.

  
But again, he has to go. He has to get out of here. He has to get home. Home to Ravina, where he belongs… But he’ll come back. After making such good friends here, he WILL come back…

  
Maybe…

  
He quickly pushes those thoughts aside for the moment; these aren’t exactly pleasant thoughts. Instead, he lets his thoughts shift to Sans. Particularly… his eyes. Being a skeleton, he doesn’t have eyeballs or eyelids… but somehow he can still wink and close his eyes to sleep. How exactly he does that is something Xeno may never know. Another thing he’s curious about is what is INSIDE his eye sockets. Those little white dots in his eyes… what are they? Would it hurt if Xeno poked it? Is there anything at all inside Sans’s skull? Or is it just all magic? Seriously, how do skeletons work? Xeno gives Sans a couple light taps on the forehead to keep him awake. “Hey Sansy,” he says. “I, uh… was curious…” Sans blinks his eyes open and turns to face Xeno. “ what’s up, buddy?”

  
Xeno considers just asking Sans about his eyes, but figures no. That would be too boring and straightforward. I am going the gayforward way, Xeno thinks as he suddenly shoves his entire hand into Sans’s left eye socket. Sans flinches instinctively, not seeming to be in any pain but rather just shocked and slightly uncomfortable. “uh…”

  
“I know you’re gonna, like, kill me for this,” Xeno says, poking around in Sans’s eye. “This is probably such a violation, but like... I HAVE to do this. And holy shit those little white dots in your eyes? They’re not REAL. They’re like... illusions. Holograms. They don’t exist. That’s so crazy. I’m literally fisting your eye socket right now and I didn’t even feel the dot thing. There’s nothing in here. Do you have a brain? Can I feel around for one? My fist is already in here so...”

  
“kid, take your hand out of my eye,” Sans insists, looking less shocked now and just more uncomfortable. Xeno blushes and chuckles. “Sorry… I was just… really curious about it, y’know?” He tugs his hand away from Sans’s eye socket, but just ends up accidentally pulling Sans’s entire skull forward a bit, making him let out a little grunt. Xeno reddens a bit more and he nervously grips at his hair. “Uh, I-I’m stuck…” Sans’s one working eye quickly snaps up to look at Xeno, for a split second seeming to glow a yellowish-blue but returning to normal almost instantly. “what?” Xeno squeaks out an “eep!” and feels himself start to sweat in embarrassment and worry. “I’m sorry! I’m still kinda high!”

  
Sans can’t help but chuckle at Xeno’s embarrassment. It’s still pretty cute. He glances towards the bedroom door. “hey, it’s fine. i have an idea.” He looks back at Xeno, seeming like he’s trying to wink but obviously can’t at the moment. “i’ll just need you to give me a hand at getting us both outta here.” Xeno certainly wasn’t expecting a pun, but is quite happy with it, honestly. He laughs and the two of them stand to fix their predicament. “Well, at least you’re not mad at me!” The two take a few steps out of the bedroom and Xeno glances back at Sans, blushing. “…Right?” Sans chuckles. “nah, don’t worry, buddy. i’m not mad at you, but you sure are a handful.”

  
“I think I see what you mean,” Xeno says, trying to make a joke back. He isn’t as punny as Ravina, but he’s trying here. Sans can definitely tell that he’s trying and laughs at all of his dumb jokes, this one included.

  
Sans leads them both to the bathroom and grabs a bottle of soap. “this should help you slip your hand out.” Xeno takes the bottle and squirts some out around his trapped hand. “Hey Sansy,” he says, rubbing the soap around his wrist, hand and the eye socket.. “Do you have a dirty mind? ‘Cuz if so, I’ll clean it right up!” Sans laughs and rolls his eye. “you’re trying so hard. y’know, there’s plenty of jokes bubbling in my mind that aren’t old and washed-up already. if you can get into my mind, i’ll share some with you. oh, but looks like you’ve already slipped yourself in there, huh?”

  
Finally, Xeno manages to pop his hand out of Sans’s eye. It hurts just a little bit, but he doesn’t even pay attention to that because he’s laughing at Sans’s jokes. “Oh, you! I swear; you’re the best!” Sans shrugs, giving Xeno a sudsy wink. “hey, thanks, buddy. and if we’re coming clean to each other right now, i’ll have you know that i think you’re pretty cool too.” Xeno blushes and smiles shyly, twirling his hair around his finger again as he watches Sans rinse out his eye. “Thanks, Sans… I…” He cuts himself off there, not wanting to say any other stupid things. He isn’t Wolfie, he thinks to himself. I have to remember that. But still…

  
Once Sans finishes rinsing the soap from his eyes and drying it off, Xeno follows him out of the bathroom. Xeno crosses his arms and leans on the railing looking down on the first floor of the skelebro’s house. Sans joins him, but instead of leaning on the railing he plops himself down onto the floor, stretching out his leg and foot bones. “papyrus has been gone for a while,” he says. “he’ll probably be back soon. wanna make him some lunch?” Xeno nods. “Yeah, we should do that. Are WE also having leftover spaghetti for lunch?” _As much as I love Papyrus,_ Xeno thinks. _His spaghetti was… pretty fucking terrible… but I’d never say that to his face. He’s too nice for me to ever insult like that…_

  
“ if you want,” Sans says with a shrugs. “but i was thinking we’d order a pizza.” Xeno claps his hands together and gasps loudly, looking down at Sans with starry, shimmering eyes of joy. “PIZZA?! REALLY?! I LOVE PIZZA!!” It’s his favorite food, in fact. And Sans knows it. He gives Xeno a wink. “yeah, pizza. but we should still eat some spaghetti anyway, just to make paps happy.” Xeno nods. “Of course! Anything for Papy, and anything for pizza!” He squats down beside Sans and playfully pokes at his cheeks. “And anything for you, if you ever want anything from me besides being lazy with you.” Sans chuckles. “hey, that’s plenty for me. i’d be too lazy to do anything more than that anyway.”

  
“Yeah,” Xeno says, blushing slightly as he plays with his hair again. “I guess that’s true, huh?” He pauses, then plops himself down to sit on the floor beside Sans and says “Y'know, thinking of Papy... where is, anyway? What’s he off doing?"

  
"probably out training to join the royal guard," Sans says, reaching into his jacket pocket(which Xeno is still wearing since it’s comfy) and pulling out a snack(a couple ketchup packets). "it’s his dream. i don’t know if he'll ever actually be allowed to join, since... well, you know him. he'd rather hug the enemy instead of hurt them. if he was put in a position where his life was threatened by someone, i don’t know if he'd be able to fight back. i like to think that he'd be able to fight back at least enough to escape, but... well..." He shrugs. "sometimes there’s such a thing as too nice."

  
“But hurting people is bad!” Xeno says insistently. “Tell him to just run away if he ever feels like he’s in any danger!” Sans chuckles. “yeah, i guess that’d be the preferred option.”

  
The two sit there lazily for a bit while Sans slurps down his ketchup snack and then Xeno breaks the silence and starts rambling. “So, Papy wants to join the Royal Guard, huh? That’s actually really cool… I considered trying to join the Royal Guard, actually. I wanted to be useful to Wolfie since he was so nice and saved me from… well, that’s not important now. I tried to join. I started training under the captain; his name is Pyro and he’s actually pretty hot. So, like, because I did some training and shit, I actually do know how to fight… a little bit. And Wolfie kept cheering me on as he watched me train. But… even though he never said it, I knew that he didn’t want me to join the Guard. He always thought I was too nice for it or something… and I guess he was right. I don’t wanna hurt anyone. I don’t wanna force myself into a position where I might HAVE to hurt someone. But… I just wanted to be helpful. I had just arrived in Wolfie’s universe and I was basically just mooching off his kindness. I didn’t have a job, so I wasn’t making money, I didn’t have a house so I had to stay with him… and yeah, he’s the king and all so he has plenty of spare beds in the castle and definitely has the money to support me… but I still felt bad that I was… y’know, taking advantage of him kinda. I wasn’t happy with that… so I tried to join the Royal Guard so I could be useful. But… he didn’t seem to like the idea. He tried to look like he was, but I know him. He wasn’t happy with it. So I gave up. I really… I really didn’t want to join anyway. Despite everything… I’m still not a fighter.”

  
Sans sits through his entire speech, his slurps at the ketchup seeming to slightly slow down a bit as he takes in the information that Xeno just gave him. “…huh. never woulda guessed that you would wanna join the rg. i mean, you? fighting someone? i mean, actually fighting someone… i can’t imagine that. but, uh… heh. you… really are serious about the whole ‘other universe’ thing, aren’t ya?” Xeno nods, feeling his heart sink just a little. “Yeah… you don’t believe me?” Sans glances away for a moment. “no, that’s not it. but, you know that is kind of a tall claim. multiverse traveling… isn’t exactly simple. it's not that i didn't believe you. it's just that i had my doubts. but i trust you, kid. i know you wouldn't lie to me." Xeno smiles shyly. "Aww, thanks Sansy!”

  
"also," Sans continues. "you're leaving soon, aren't you?" Xeno's smile fades, remembering that fact. "Uh, yeah... that's right. You know that, huh?" Sans nods. "yeah, i caught on. you gotta go find your friend and get home. i get that. and i was wondering… while you were coming here in the first place, you didn't... happen to see...” His voice trails off and Xeno tries to get him to finish his question. “See... what...?” After a second, Sans shrugs and chuckles. “...heh heh. well, never mind. you wouldn’t know what i'm talking about. and besides... it's nothing now. but, hey... you'll come back to visit us here, right? and when you do..." He gives Xeno a playful wink. "be sure to bring your furry friend with you. i'd really love to meet him."

  
Xeno hadn't really thought about bringing Wolfie back with him to visit. Honestly he was a bit scared that he would lose his Saikik powers every time he comes back here and if both he AND Ravina lose their Saikik... that could be… well, it could be a bad time. But... after meeting and becoming good friends with Sans and Papyrus, Xeno starts to think that maybe temporarily losing their powers every time he comes to visit wouldn't be so bad. Ravina knows how to fight fine without Saikik anyway, they'd be fine if they somehow run into any trouble. Besides, if Xeno ends up never seeing Sans or Papyrus ever again... he almost tears up at that thought. He'd miss them both so much. Xeno smiles and pulls Sans into a tight and loving hug.  
"Of course I'll come back!" He says in joy. "And I'll bring Wolfie! Oh, you'd absolutely LOVE him! He loves bad puns and being lazy and cuddling and eating random shit that he basically pulls out of his ass! I know you two'd get along so well!" Sans hugs him back and gives him a couple pats on the back. "heh heh heh. i'm sure we’d all have a great time together.”

  
Xeno cuddles with Sans for just a little bit more, rambling on about all the fun things they could do together. Finally, Sans calls up a pizza place and orders their lunch. They go sit on the couch to wait for the food, enjoying what will likely be the last time they get to enjoy each other’s company alone for quite a while. Xeno still doesn’t really want to leave… but as long as he knows that he can return with Wolfie at any time, he doesn’t feel quite so scared of losing his new friends.

 

**|\vvv/|**

 

The claws on Ravina’s feet click against the metallic floor of the Multiverse Crime and Investigation Federation HQ as he hastily makes his way through the hallways. His rainbow tail is flowing and swinging behind him and he tugs at his red scarf; it’s a bit hot in this section of the HQ. “I hate the heat,” he says. “This is why I don’t like coming down to this section of HQ.”

  
“It’s really not that hot here,” the scientist who leads him on says. “We keep this section at about an average room temperature.” Ravina shrugs, pulling off his scarf and storing it temporarily in his symbol. “Yeah, well, it’s hot as hell to me.”  
Ravina is led to a bright white room, the look of the room clean and sterile akin to hospital rooms. He and the scientist stand behind a glass to look into the room while two other scientists, wearing light blue outfits that looks similar to surgical attire, appear to be working on a creature on the colorless hospital-like bed. The entire room is lit with white lights that desaturate every other item in the room and make everything appear drained of all color. Laying spread out on the hospital bed is a black mass of shadows juxtaposed with the rest of the room that is coated in white light. The mass seems to be unaffected by the lights of the room, as if the light just gets absorbed by it when it gets too close. At first glance the mass appears to be completely motionless; just a mound of some tar-like dark matter compressed together enough to form something tangible.  
That itself would be an amazing breakthrough in the Multiverse Institution’s research on the Void, but this is something even greater than just solidified dark matter. Upon closer inspection, the mass appears to be slowly and barely expanding and compressing, as if it’s breathing. It really IS alive.

  
Ravina observes in amazement as the two scientists in the room scurry around the mass, trying to find some way to wake up the creature of shade. No matter what they seem to try, the creature doesn’t wake up or move any more than just breathing. Ravina taps his claws against the metal control mechanism in front of the observatory window. “…Is nothing working at all? They’re not awake?”

  
“No,” says the scientist beside him. “Nothing has produced any sort of response in it. All we can get it to do is breathe.” Ravina crosses his arms. “Well… if nothing’s working, then nothing’s working. Give them a rest. We can come back to this later.” He clicks down a button on the control panel and speaks into the microphone.

  
“Yo, guys,” he says to the surgical scientists, his voice playing over the speaker in the room. “Give the creature a break. If nothing’s happened yet, maybe we should leave them alone for a little while. If we’re lucky, they’ll wake up on their own. You never know; you could be scaring them.” The surgeon scientists place their tools down on their trays and one walks over to the microphone in their room. “Of course,” he says, his voice just slightly muffled by the hospital mask over his mouth and nose. “We’ll get someone to look after it while we’re gone.”

  
“I’ll stay with them,” Ravina says in response. “I need to request for some help in finding someone, but there’s really nothing more I can do. While your guys work on that, I’ll stay here and look after the shade.” The surgeon scientists nod and carefully exit the room. Ravina plops himself down into a chair, placing his elbow on the windowsill and resting his cheek in his hand. He glances at the scientist next to him, who appears to be about to leave. “Yo, buddy,” he calls to him. “Bring me a nice cup of coffee, will ya? Two cream, two sugar, and STRONG. Don’t bring me any of that weak shit. I need that good old punch in the face from it.” The scientist nods and says “of course, sir” and heads off to retrieve the requested coffee.

  
After he’s gone, Ravina glances in at the creature, who is still laying unconscious. Or, at least Ravina assumes that they’re unconscious. It’s certainly possible that, since this is some sort of Void Monster, they could be perfectly awake and fine, but just can’t communicate that to the scientists here because they don’t have that kind of capability. Ravina might just need to call in someone who knows how to read into the behavior of creatures like this who might not have any real means of communicating with the rest of them. A really good psychologist, maybe…?

  
Ravina drinks his coffee down after it’s brought to him and continues to observe the shade in thought. He can’t figure out if they’re really asleep or if they just can’t talk. Eventually he starts to get bored of the waiting around and takes out a portable video game system to play and pass the time, glancing up at the shade every once in a while to check for any changes in their movements.

  
Nothing.

  
Ravina sighs dramatically and grabs his coffee cup. “Do something, Shade,” he says, taking a sip of his coffee cup. He then realizes that the cup is empty and has been empty for a couple hours now. He looks into the cup and blinks. “Oh. Right. Duh.” He places the cup back down on the control panel and slumps down in his seat. “Well, Shade, you have proven to be very boring. Not that I’m really surprised… but I’ve met far more interesting shadows than you. You’re a miracle shadow, but you don’t really act like it.” He stretches out his arms and legs, making his body look kind of like a big X, then let’s his limbs drops down and hang towards the floor. After a little while, his eyes start to fall shut and he slips into his dreams for a quick nap.  
It isn’t long before he wakes up again, however. Sleeping in this particular chair has proven to be very uncomfortable. He sits up with a little crack noise, leaning forward a bit in his seat to rub at his back. “Ow, my spine… and my neck… that was a dumb idea.” He groans, a little growl mixed in with it, and stands up to stretch out a bit.

  
While he stretches his back out, he glances over at the Shade in the room, which has the lights dimmed down so he could sleep but still just light enough for him to see the form of the Shade has shifted slightly on the bed: two white hands with a hole in each of them gripping at the edge of the bed and a round white cracked face with broken black eyes and a smile plastered on it, resting on the bed and turned to be seemingly staring straight at the wolf.

 

**~*^^*~**

 

Xeno really didn’t want to leave, but he knew he was going to do so inevitability. So, he figured that it would be best if he left around noon so he could minimize the time he has to spend walking through the unknown areas of the Underground at night. He actually prefers nighttime to daytime, but in unfamiliar territory… he’d be pretty scared to just wander around in the darkness.

  
Sans had told Xeno a little bit about the next area over. Apparently it’s called Waterfall and it’s not quite as cold as Snowdin, but Sans says that Xeno can keep the jacket until he gets there. Apparently Sans will come get it from him after he arrives at Waterfall, and Xeno doesn’t even bother questioning how Sans is gonna get there before him. Maybe he can teleport, Xeno thinks to himself as he walks down the path out of Snowdin. He chuckles. Yeah, right. A teleporting skeleton. Seems legit.

  
He walks down the long pathway to Waterfall, the snow falling from the sky becoming more and more heavy with each step. He cuddles down into Sans’s jacket for warmth, suddenly feeling very grateful to him that he was kind enough to let Xeno keep it until he got to Waterfall. When Xeno comes back to visit them, he’ll be sure to bring his own fluffy winter jacket.

  
As he trudges through the snow storm, he thinks back to Papyrus’s face when Xeno told him he was leaving. He could see the complete and utter shock and disappointment on his face at the news, and Xeno couldn’t help but tear up a bit. He didn’t think Papyrus would be so sad to see him go. Maybe it’s because he’s leaving so soon… but whatever. The reason Papyrus was so distraught over Xeno’s departure doesn’t really matter because whatever the reason may be, Xeno felt his heart break when he saw that. He really loves Papyrus and never wanted to make him sad like that. Papyrus had just listened to Xeno’s excuses and then just replied with “OH… WELL, HAVE FUN. COME BACK SOON TO VISIT ME!” And then he ran over to give Xeno a tight hug. Xeno wonders if skeletons can cry… because if they can, Papyrus probably did after he retreated into his room and shut the door behind him. Xeno had spent a lot of time with Sans, sure, but he also really loved Papyrus’s company… He really hopes that Papyrus is alright now. He’d hate to see that he hurt anyone else, especially someone as kind and amazing as “The Great Papyrus.”

  
As Xeno begins to see the entrance to a cave where the snow storm won’t effect him, he tries to force himself to speed up. _That’s probably the entrance to Waterfall,_ he thinks, stomping through the storm as fast as he can. _If I can just get into there…!_

  
Suddenly, Xeno freezes in place when a familiar voice calls to him from behind. “ WAIT, XENO! DON’T GO YET!” Xeno smiles, turning to see the skeleton’s silhouette barely starting to become visible in the snow storm. “I'd recognize that font anywhere... and why the hell can I actually HEAR what font they talk in? Isn’t that just a little weird?”

  
Conveniently, the snow storm seems to die down just a little bit, enough for Xeno to be able to see Papyrus standing a little ways away from him, a nervous smile on his face as he holds his hands together and lets his red cape wave in the snowy cold wind. “SO, YOU’RE… REALLY LEAVING?” He pauses for a moment, then asks a bit quieter. “ARE YOU SURE…?”

  
It almost breaks Xeno’s heart; Papyrus really doesn’t want Xeno to leave. “Papy, don’t worry,” Xeno says, wanting to go over and give him another hug but he’s kind of too cold to really want to walk back to him. “I promise I’ll be back. Just let me leave, okay? I… I don’t wanna…” accidentally have to hurt you too… he finishes the sentence in his mind, pushing the flashbacks to Toriel out of his mind as best he can. Papyrus crosses his arms, smiling and posing dramatically.

  
“NONSENSE!” He exclaims. “YOU DON’T HAVE TO LEAVE! YOU SEE, I JUST WENT TO SEE UNDYNE AND I TOLD HER ALL ABOUT YOU. I TOLD HER YOU WERE A STRANGE-LOOKING HALF-HUMAN WHO WANTS TO GO HOME, BECAUSE YOU KIND OF ARE! YOU DO HAVE A HUMAN SOUL.” Xeno flinches at that. “How did you KNOW that?!”

  
“SANS POINTED IT OUT LAST NIGHT,” Papyrus explains. “IT WASN’T LOOKING TOO GOOD THERE, SO WE TRIED TO CLEAN IT UP AS BEST WE COULD! THERE WAS A LOT OF WEIRD BLACK GOOEY STUFF ON IT. SANS CALLED IT LOVE, FOR SOME REASON. IT WAS SO WEIRD! BUT IT SHOULD BE OKAY NOW. WE GOT MOST OF IT OFF!” Xeno gasps, clutching at his chest. “You took away my love?! But I still love you guys so much! Why would you try and take that away?!”

  
“I DON’T KNOW!” Papyrus says, not seeming to really get it either. “ASK SANS. HE’S THE ONE WHO CALLED IT LOVE. ANYHOO, I TOLD UNDYNE THAT YOU HAD A HUMAN SOUL AND SHE TOLD ME TO CAPTURE YOU. BUT I DON’T WANNA CAPTURE YOU. I’D RATHER JUST FORCEFULLY KEEP YOU AS MY GUEST! SO I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL HAVE TO INSIST THAT YOU RETURN HOME WITH ME!”

  
Xeno crosses his arms, frowning. “Uh, sorry, Papy… but it doesn’t sound like a good idea to me. I’d rather head out myself…” This Undyne wants Papy to capture me, Xeno thinks. And… I doubt she wants to capture me so we can cuddle. If it WAS because she wants to cuddle, then by all means I’d stick around but… “Sorry, I… I just have to go. I’d love to meet this Undyne and all… but I need to go.” Papyrus jumps and “NYEH”s, a sad look returning to his face. “BUT UNDYNE IS SO NICE! I KNOW SHE’LL HELP YOU GET HOME! AND THE SOONER YOU GET HOME, THE SOONER YOU CAN RETURN TO ME WITH YOUR FRIEND!”

  
He’s making this so difficult, Xeno thinks, gripping at his hair in nervousness. I don’t wanna just run from him, and I don’t wanna stay because I’m scared now… I just have to convince him to let me go then… right? Xeno opens his mouth to speak but the sight of Papyrus suddenly using magic to summon a couple bones in his hands shocks him and he squeaks out a small “eep!” Papyrus smiles innocently, twirling the bones around his hands a little bit. “WELL THEN, WE CAN HAVE A PLAY FIGHT!” He announces happily. “I CAN PRETEND YOU’RE A HUMAN AND I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS, THE GREATEST AND MOST POPULAR MEMBER OF THE ROYAL GUARD! EXCEPT IT WON’T REALLY BE PRETEND BECAUSE THAT IS ACTUALLY KIND OF THE SITUATION HERE. BUT I WON’T REALLY HURT YOU, BECAUSE I LOVE YOU A LOT. I WILL SIMPLY THROW BONES AT YOU UNTIL YOU GET TIRED AND WANNA COME HOME FOR A NAP! WHAT DO YOU THINK? SOUNDS LIKE FUN, RIGHT?”

  
“UH, WELL,” Xeno says, not fully sure how to respond to that request. “No offense, but I’m KINDA not liking that idea, Papy!” Papyrus seems to hesitate for a moment, but quickly returns to his normal happy self. “WELL… JUST THINK OF IT LIKE… YOU GET TO WITNESS THE GREAT PAPYRUS’S BIGGEST MOMENT FIRSTHAND! NYEH HEH HEH! YOU’LL BE THE REASON I BECOME POPULAR! YOU’LL BE THE REASON I GET TO JOIN THE ROYAL GUARD! WHEN ALL OF MY FANS ARE SHOWERING ME WITH LOVE AND KISSES I CAN TURN TO YOU AND SAY ‘IT’S ALL THANKS TO MY BEST FRIEND XENO!’ NYEH HEH HEH HEH!”

  
Somehow, despite knowing that he’s about to get into a battle with Papyrus, Xeno finds himself not feeling all that worried. Papyrus would never actually go so far as to kill him and… he just might be able to convince Papyrus to let him go. He just needs to talk to him a bit and everything will be fine.

 

Or at least, Xeno prays to the gods that he can do this without hurting his new friend.

  
The familiar flashing begins and the world fades into the monochrome in preparation for the “play fight”. The snow storm conveniently seems to temporarily disappear during the battle entirely, and the snow on the ground even switches to black instead. Papyrus blocks the way, playfully twirling around two bones and then dramatically aiming one at Xeno. “HALF-HUMAN!” He announces in his typical innocent and playful voice. “PREPARE YOURSELF TO WITNESS THE MIGHT OF THE GREAT AND POWERFUL PAPYRUS!”

  
Xeno glances down at his purple SOUL, seeing the remnants of the black goo that Papyrus told him about. He hadn’t noticed it before… Sans apparently called it LOVE, for whatever reason. Well, something called LOVE can’t be bad. He ignores the stains and focuses on the battle as Papyrus raises one of the bones in his hand. It glows blue as he flicks it up, summoning a few bones from the ground and using the bone in his other hand to send them slinging across the ground towards Xeno. He prepares himself to dodge them, but quickly realizes that since only his SOUL can be damaged in battle it doesn’t matter if the bones hit his body, since they’ll just phase right through him. Also, the bones aren’t tall enough to reach his SOUL floating in front of his chest. He just stands there and watches the three bones go right through him. “…Well, I guess I WAS expecting… him to go easy on me, but, uh… I was still expecting… a bit of a challenge…?” Papyrus jumps up in happiness.

  
“WOWIE!” He exclaims. “YOU DID SO WELL, HALF-HUMAN! THEN TRY THIS!” He summons three more harmless bones and sends them at Xeno, who continues to just watch them slide through him. “Welp,” he says, turning to watch the bones disappear into the ground behind him. “Once again… I was terrified for no reason. I have such a bad habit of worrying over nothing. Why was I so scared about this?” Papyrus crosses his arms. “YOU’RE REALLY GOOD AT THIS PLAY-FIGHTING THING, XENO!”

  
Xeno laughs and gives him a thumbs up. “Well, as long as it really is only pretend then yeah, I guess I’m fine at this.” Papyrus raises his bone with a “NYEH” and a few blue bones pop out of the ground. “WELL THEN, HALF-HUMAN! PREPARE YOURSELF FOR THIS BATTLE TO GET REAL! THE FAKE KIND OF REAL! NYEH HEH HEH! BEHOLD MY AMAZING BLUE ATTACK!” He hits the blue bones towards Xeno and swings the bones in his hands, which are still glowing blue, and sends some blue magic bones flying through the air at Xeno as well.

  
If Xeno didn’t know better, he’d say this is a nearly impossible attack to dodge. However, Xeno knows that blue attacks don’t hurt unless he moves his SOUL so he just continues to stand in place, watching the bones go right through him again. “I’ll be honest,” he says to himself. “This is actually pretty cute. And funny. I don’t have to do anything at all. Just channel my inner ‘Sans the lazybones’ and stand here doing nothing. Good thing I’ve been lazing around with him a lot recently. I have experience.”

  
Suddenly, Xeno hears a high-pitched sound that sort of resembles a glass clinking and he feels his SOUL fall to his feet. Shocked and confused, he looks down to see what happened. “Wha-? Ow!” A small bone quickly slid straight into his SOUL, actually hurting him for the first time in this “play fight.” Xeno frowns and looks at Papyrus. “Papy, what the hell is this?!” Papyrus crosses his arms and poses proudly. “YOU’RE BLUE NOW! THAT’S MY ATTACK! NYEH HEH HEH!”

  
“Whaddya mean I’m ‘blue’ now?!” Xeno exclaims in shock. He looks down to see that his SOUL now has what appears to be a semi-translucent blue glass casing over it. It does look blue now, but in the right light Xeno can still tell it’s purple underneath the glass. He looks back up at Papyrus, who has summoned a few more bones from the ground. He smiles and says “TRY JUMPING, XENO!” in what was probably supposed to be a whisper but this is Papyrus we’re talking about so it still came out pretty loud. He then sends the bones hurling through the snow at Xeno.

  
Xeno jumps as Papyrus suggested and he notices that he can somehow jump a lot higher now than usual. It’s as if gravity is less strong while he has this blue SOUL, but it’s still effecting him. He jumps over the bones and lands a few feet away, near the wall of the invisible box keeping him in place. “Wow, okay,” he says in surprise. “I can fly again. Kinda.” He looks over at Papyrus who looks super happy and excited. “WOWIE! YOU REALLY ARE GREAT AT THIS!” He sends a few more bones at Xeno, who jumps and dodges them pretty well. He almost got hit on one of the smaller ones as he was landing, but he barely got around it. Papyrus poses proudly. “MY FUTURE FANS WILL LOVE TO HEAR ABOUT THIS BATTLE OVER AND OVER AGAIN!”

  
“Is it really necessary to fight me?!” Xeno asks, flinging himself over some more bones and accidentally nipping his SOUL on the way down. Papyrus points his bone at Xeno. “OF COURSE IT IS, HALF-HUMAN! IF I BEAT YOU AND CAPTURE YOU, I’LL FINALLY BE POPULAR! UNDYNE WILL FINALLY SEE THAT I, THE GREAT AND POWERFUL PAPYRUS, IS FIT TO JOIN THE ROYAL GUARD!” He sends a difficult to dodge barrage of bones at Xeno, who gets tripped up more than once, ending up face first in the black snow. He groans and pushes himself back up onto his knees. “P-Papy, please...” he says desperately, his hands held together pleadingly. “I get it, okay? You… you wanna be popular and… and you wanna join the Royal Guard. It’s your dream, I get it… but please… just let me go…”

  
For a moment, Papyrus pauses his attacks, the hint of a frown on his face, but quickly returns to normal and sends another set of bone attacks at Xeno. “W-WELL, I DON’T WANT TO HURT YOU… BUT I CANNOT JUST LET YOU GO. UNDYNE TOLD ME TO CAPTURE YOU, S-SO…” Xeno dodges the bones and takes a seconds to catch his breath before Papyrus sends another wave of bones at him, these being just a little bit less extreme than before. “B-BUT… IF YOU WANT… YOU COULD JUST COME HOME… AND WE DON’T HAVE TO PLAY FIGHT ANYMORE…” The bones in Papyrus’s hands are shaking slightly as he holds the one bone to the sky and points the other at Xeno. “IT… I REALLY DON’T WANNA HURT YOU BY ACCIDENT OR ANYTHING…”

  
Those words make Xeno suck in a pained breath as the flashbacks start to creep back into his mind. The battle scene fades away as Xeno feels his consciousness slip into his day dreams where he sees Toriel standing in front of him, her arms spread out as she smiles down kindly at Xeno. He reaches out a shaking hand to her and with a single touch her face distorts into an agonizing scream. The vision fades to dust which clings to Xeno’s hand as he reaches out to Papyrus, tears welling up in his eyes. “P-Papy…”

  
Papyrus immediately throws the bones in his hands away and runs over to Xeno. “I-I’M SORRY!!” He says as he pulls Xeno into a tight and protective hug. “I JUST… DON’T WANT YOU TO LEAVE! I DON’T KNOW WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO YOU OUT THERE! I KNOW YOU SAID YOU’LL COME VISIT BUT IF SOMETHING HAPPENS TO YOU BEFORE YOU CAN GET HOME… I DON’T WANNA… I’M SCARED… I’M SCARED FOR YOU, XENO…”

  
The color returns to the world, ending the play fight preemptively. Xeno clings to Papyrus, snuggling close to him. “I’m s-sorry, Papy…” he squeaks out quietly. “I know… I u-understand…” He pulls away from Papyrus just enough to look him in the eyes, both of them crying now. Xeno manages to force a smile onto his face in an attempt to cheer up the distressed skeleton. “I promise… that I’ll be o-okay… I’ll be fine… I…” He pulls Papyrus’s head down to plant a gently and slightly somber kiss on his forehead. “I love you, okay…? Don’t worry about me… because as long as I know that you’re here, I know I can always come back to you guys. If I’m ever in trouble, I can come back here and you’ll keep me safe… I know it. So please… just let me go… and when I come back…” He lets out a playful laugh. “We’ll have a great big pasta party just for you! Okay?”

  
Papyrus smiles at Xeno’s words, then wipes away his tears. “XENO… WOWIE, YOU’RE… THAT’S SO NICE OF YOU TO SAY! BUT…” He shrugs. “WHEN I TASTED MY PASTA LAST NIGHT I REALIZED THAT IT WAS REALLY BAD. I APOLOGIZE FOR MAKING YOU EAT IT. WHEN YOU RETURN, I WILL MAKE PIZZA INSTEAD. PIZZA WITH ACTUAL GOOD PASTA ON TOP! NYEH HEH HEH!”  
Xeno hesitates for a moment, cringing a little at the thought of that. Okay, honestly, that sounds absolutely ridiculous but… “S-sure, Papy… sounds… great…” Maybe it would be… okay… I don’t know. I’d try it I guess. Papyrus jumps up, posing happily as his little cape flows in the wind. “NYEH HEH HEH! THEN I SHALL LEARN HOW TO MAKE THE GREATEST PASTA PIZZA THE TASTE BUDS OF THE UNDERGROUND HAVE EVER TASTED!” Xeno laughs, standing up himself and brushing off some snow from his legs. “Just in the Underground? No, I’m sure it’ll be the greatest in the entire Multiverse, Papy. Don’t sell yourself short like that.” Papyrus gasps, his eyes shining with happiness. “YOU REALLY THINK SO? YOU THINK MY COOKING WILL BE THAT GOOD?!” He does a twirl in happiness. “WOWIE! THAT’S ONE OF THE NICEST THINGS ANYONE HAS EVER SAID TO ME! THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL NOT DISAPPOINT YOU, XENO! NYEH HEH HEH HEH!”

  
Xeno holds his arms out and Papyrus happily picks him up, hugging him warmly as he carries Xeno the final few steps out of the familiar snowy territory and into the cave of Waterfall. Once Xeno is safely in the cave, Papyrus gently places Xeno on the ground and waves to him, a sad smile on his face. “WELL… I GUESS IF YOU REALLY DON’T WANNA STAY… I’LL BE WAITING FOR YOU, OKAY?” Xeno gives Papyrus a kind and sincere smile back. “Alright then. Don’t get your bones too rattled up while waiting for me. Just relax and do your thing, Papy. Take it from your brother. He’s pretty good at relaxing.”

  
“HE’S GOOD AT BEING LAZY!” Papyrus insists. “BUT I GUESS I COULD LEARN SOMETHING FROM HIM ANYWAY. WELL…” He hesitates, then shyly takes a step back. “BYE…” Xeno waves at him as he slowly walks away. He still isn’t very happy about this… hm… “Hey, Papy?” Papyrus turns to Xeno with a hopeful “NYEH?”

  
“Do you have a fan club?” Xeno asks. Papyrus shakes his head. “NO… I DO NOT BELIEVE SO... BUT IT IS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE THE UNDERGROUND... NO, THE WORLD... NO, THE UNIVERSE, NO... MULTIVERSE HEARS OF MY AMAZINGNESS!” Xeno chuckles. “Well, Papy… I’m sure that when I tell everyone back home about how great you are, there’ll be one in Tooikuka almost immediately. I’ll make sure it happens.”

  
Papyrus gasps in shock, looking as if he’s about to tear up again in joy. “REALLY?! WOWIE, YOU'D DO THAT?! I KNEW YOU LOVE ME!” He happily runs back home, yelling “SANS! SANS! I HAVE A FAN, SANS!” Xeno laughs at it; Papyrus is so sweet. And as Xeno turns and starts to make his way through the new area, he feels a sincere warmth fill his heart.

  
That went so much better than last time, he thinks. _Maybe I CAN make it out of here without any more… heartbreak…_  
As he makes his way through the wet and slightly muddy ground, he notices just how quiet it is here in Waterfall. Water from the cave’s ceiling dripping down to the floor, forming puddles and even rivers that curl around the scene. Xeno feels the shimmering blue and black ambient lighting putting his mind at ease as he listens to his footsteps reverberating through the cave. He lets his eyes fall shut as he takes a nice long deep breath, enjoying the feeling of the soothing wet air filling his lungs. “It’s so… peaceful here…”

  
Suddenly, however, the peace is shattered by the sound of a low growl in the distance. Xeno freezes in place, holding his breath in anxiety. Oh god what is that?! Xeno slowly turns his head to see a menacing armored figure standing on a hill above him. The figure’s head turns just slightly and Xeno sees a bright yellow glow in their eyes from through their helmet as their growling voice speaks, a venomous hint in their voice.

  
“Who’s there?”

 

**|\vvv/|**

 

“Well, that’s just a little unsettling,” Ravina says as he stares at the new figure in the room behind the glass. The Shade is still laying down, but they’re clearly “awake” now. Ravina carefully goes over to the microphone to speak to the Shade. “Hey, you’re awake,” he says. “So… can you stand up? Are you injured?” The Shade moves their mouth, as if speaking, but Ravina can’t hear into the room. He frowns. “Okay, I… I can’t hear you from here. I’m gonna trust you and come into the room, okay? Then we can talk. I don’t wanna hurt you or anything, okay? Don’t attack me.” The Shade gives Ravina a weak nod and rests their head on the bed.

  
Ravina swiftly leaves the observation room and goes down to the room with the Shade. He takes a breath and clicks a button, causing the large metal door to slide open and allow the wolf to step inside. He closes the door behind him and approaches the Shade. He circles around so that he can see the creature’s face, which is staring blankly at the wall. After a few seconds their eyes open just a little bit more and a small white glowing pupil appears in each eye. They glance up at Ravina and the Shade’s crooked smile starts to move a bit, trying to form words. Ravina waits a moment for them to say something, but nothing is coming out. He frowns.

  
“Can’t talk?” He asks. “You have a mouth but don’t have words, huh? Well, I guess that’s not surprising. What use is words out in the Void? There’s no one to speak to. Nothing to say. Nothing to describe except darkness. Maybe the occasional light from a multiverse traveler, but even then I doubt you could stop them and strike up a conversation. But you can understand me, can’t you?” The Shade nods. “Good. Then at least there’s that. Do you think you have any way of communicating with us?”

  
The Shade’s eyes dart around for a bit, as if thinking and considering their options. Finally, they raise their right hand slightly and gives Ravina a thumbs down gesture. At first Ravina assumes that’s all it is, but the Shade then holds up two fingers akin to a peace sign. They lower their right hand and and holds up their left one in a fist, showing Ravina the back of their hand. The darkness inside the hole of the hand forms a symbol that appears to be the sun, then they drop the hand and their face contorts and forms a blank expression for a moment, then returns to normal. Ravina blinks in confusion for a moment and waits for something more, then says, “I’ll… go get a translator.”

  
A few minutes later, Ravina has brought in a couple scientists and one that is there specifically to decode what the Shade is saying. The Shade continues to repeat the same motions every time the translation looks at them. After about ten minutes, the translator flinches as he looks at his computer. “Well, this is unexpected…” Ravina, who was slumped down in a seat to wait for something to happen, sits up and twitches his ear in interest. “You got something?” The translator nods and moves aside a bit for Ravina to come over and look at his findings. The translator points at the symbols on the screen. “Look, sir.”

  
Some weird symbols are on the screen. Ravina crosses his arms. “And… what’s that mean?”

  
“It’s the symbols that the Shade was making,” says the translator. “And believe it or not, that’s English. It’s in the font called ‘Wingdings’.” Ravina raises an eyebrow at this. “What? Wingdings… oh, isn’t that that weird-looking font made of symbols? I used to randomly type shit up in that font as a pup and annoy the crap out of everyone who tried to read it.” The translator looks at Ravina.

 

“Does that mean you can read Wingdings?”

  
“Nah, I just typed in a regular font and then just switched it to Wingdings.”

  
“Oh.”

  
Ravina gently(well, “gentle” in Ravina terms. In normal person terms, it would be a bit rough) pushes the translator aside and highlights the text, then switches the font to something readable. The new words in the screen read “DARK”. Ravina smiles. “Perfect. He IS speaking English. He just speaks in Wingdings. For some reason.” He moves away from the computer, allowing the translator to return to his post. Ravina kneels down on one knee beside the Shade and talks to them. “So, we can understand you now. Will you tell us your name? If you have one, that is.” The Shade nods and shows a few more symbols:

  
“DOCTOR W. D. GASTER” is what he said. Ravina gives this “Gaster” character a calm, toothy smile. “We’ve got ourselves a real miracle here, guys.”


	4. What’s the Point of Immortality if There’s Nothing Left to Experience? ~ Could This Be Considered a Miracle?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The rest of the chapters have two titles because I’m an indecisive dorp

Xeno's heart all but stops as he sees the deadly glimmer in the monster's eye. He quickly pulls the hood of the jacket over his head and turns away, looking around for somewhere to hide. _Oh, to hell with that!_ He growls in his mind. That thing is already looking straight at me! I’m dead! He hugs himself tightly, bracing himself for the monster to attack. _I MISS MY CUDDLY SKELETONS ALREADY!! I WANNA GO BACK!! I SHOULD HAVE LISTENED TO PAPY!!_

The sound of the monster’s heavy armor stomping a couple times resounds throughout the cavern. It seems like she turned around to face Xeno, still looking down on him from on the hill. She growls, the sound of magic forming into something, presumably some kind of weapon, cuts sharply into Xeno's mind. _Oh god oh fuck oh shit help...!_

"You..." she growls. Xeno lets out a quiet squeal that she probably can’t hear and squeezes his eyes shut. "You’re Papyrus's brother, right?" Xeno’s eyes blink open in confusion. _What...?_

He then realizes that he IS wearing Sans's jacket at the moment. He’s also about the same height as Sans, well, he’s a bit taller, but from the distance that this monster is from him it’s probably hard to tell that he’s taller, so with the jacket on and the hood up... it IS possible that from behind Xeno could be mistaken for him. Xeno once again thanks the gods that Sans was kind enough to lend him the jacket until he got to Waterfall. He lets out a small breath in relief and tries to imitate Sans as best he can. "heh heh. yep, that’s me. sans, the punny comic relief skeleton." _Wow, I can’t "Sans" very well..._

Xeno hears the monster's armor moving a bit and she says "Yeah, yeah... you sound different. Are you sick? Oh, whatever. Skeletons don’t get sick. Probably. Anyway, since you’re here, I have a question for you. You haven’t come across any strange-looking half-human monster things, have you?" Xeno feels a shudder go down his spine. "a half-human, huh? uh... nope. haven’t seen a thing. i don’t have eyes, after all." _That was STUPID!! <\em>"heh heh heh...!" The monster groans._

 "You’ve made better jokes than THAT," she says. "But whatever. Tell me if you see anything. Your brother is the one who mentioned that he saw a half-human creature around. Go talk to him. He'll tell you about it." Xeno nods. "yep. will do..."

"Good," the monster says. A couple heavy footsteps, then she says. "And that’s a nice skirt. Where’d you get THAT one?" Xeno blinks in confusion for a moment. _What do you mean "THAT" one...? Does Sans have skirts that he wears sometimes...? What?_ "it was a gift." The monster laughs. "Nice! From who? Oh, whatever! I like it! Actually, I saw a nice skirt the other day that I think you'd like. I think I might just get it for you. You'll look beautiful!" With a final hearty laugh, she walks away, her metal footsteps slowly fading into the distance until Xeno returns to the normal serenity of Waterfall. Xeno slowly turns to make sure that the monster is gone and sighs in relief upon seeing that she is, indeed, gone. "Thank fuck..." He looks around, then hurries onward in hopes of finding Sans. "I have a couple questions for that skeleton..."

After wading through some shallow water, Xeno finds himself in a small area with a sentry station and a few monsters standing around. At the sentry station, he sees a familiar lazybones sitting with his face down on the table and snoring loudly. Apparently skeletons can snore, Xeno thinks as he walks up to Sans. He takes off Sans's jacket and places it around the sleeping skeleton. He gives Sans a couple gentle pats on the back and smiles. "You’re so adorable, Sansy!" He considers waking him up, but decides against it. He seems happy and content sleeping there.

Xeno is about to leave when he realizes that he should probably leave Sans a little message about the encounter with that armored monster. He looks around, then sees a strange-looking blue flower... he smiles, remembering something. "Oh, I think Sans told me about those flowers. Um... echo flowers, right?" He goes over to it and a monster standing beside it looks at him and smiles. "Hey, kid," he says. "You want to leave a message with that there flower?" Xeno nods, a little nervous around the stranger. "Yeah... it’s, um... it’s an echo flower, right?" The monster nods. "Right-o, kiddo. Here, I’ll get out of your way." He stands up and moves over to a different area of the room. Xeno looks at him. "Are you, um... gonna be here a while?" The monster nods and Xeno continues. "Then, c-could you tell that sleeping skeleton over there to listen to this... y'know, when he wakes up?" The monster gives Xeno a thumbs up. "Sure thing! I’ll pass that along!" Xeno mentally sighs in relief; he was worried about nothing, once again. The stranger seems pretty nice after all. "Thank you..." He turns to the flower and says a short little summary of what just transpired. After that, he goes over to Sans and plants a little kiss on his forehead, then continues on through Waterfall.

Despite how friendly that monster was back there, Xeno knows all too well that there’s at least ONE monster crawling around out here, lurking in the murky shadows and shimmering waters, that wants him dead. He can’t let his guard down just yet... not that he would have done so in the first place. This is still completely unfamiliar territory in a foreign universe. He knows very well just how dangerous that could be. Just because some monsters seem friendly doesn’t mean they all are...

Suddenly, Xeno recalls one particular monster he came across a long while back... The first one he met when he fell down here. The only one he's met so far that has truly tried to murder him out of malice. The monster he just met... Xeno isn’t sure why, but he gets the feeling that she isn’t trying to kill him just to be evil or something.

Perhaps it’s the fact that he's surrounded by talking flowers... but the image of Flowey's devilish and vile grin is resurfacing in his mind. He can just imagine Flowey popping out of the ground in front of him as he wades through the swampy waters... he can hear Flowey's distorted and hideous laugh resound throughout the cavern, slicing through the veil of tranquility in the air. Thick, venom-barbed vines breaking through the wet ground and mud... slowly and tightly coiling around Xeno's legs, the barbs leaving deep wounds and gashes in his skin and injecting some sort of venom into his bloodstream. Xeno feels his veins throbbing with the venom... feels his blood thicken and clot, cutting off the flow of blood in his legs and slowly working it’s way up his body. The vines shoot up from the ground and wrap around Xeno's wrists, and he feels the spikes harshly graze against his scars through his gloves, reopening the wounds. Flowey himself rises from the ground and approaches Xeno's face, smiling and laughing as tears fall from Xeno's eyes as he tries to force out a scream, but his breath fails him and all he can muster is a broken squeak of fear. Flowey wraps a vine around Xeno's throat, cutting off his breathing entirely.

"Y o u I d i o t !" The true monster says, his distorted voice and innocent voice switching back and forth as he speaks. "You poor little M I S T A K E! Golly, I can’t believe you're really so STUPID! I c o u l d j u s t e a t y o u u p ! But you'd probably taste just as disgusting as that broken little heart you've got somewhere in there!" A vine harshly pokes Xeno's chest over his anxiety-filled heart. "Boy, your heart sure is full of LOVE! Sounds TERRIBLE! How about you let your best friend... take that nasty thing away for you?"

A vine slowly and agonizingly forces itself into Xeno's chest, the sound of his flesh ripping apart and the vine digging through his guts echoes throughout the cavern. Xeno tries to scream, but the vine coiled around his throat keeps him silent and pleading for freedom. Snap! One of his ribs was forced in, snapping it in half. The vine wraps around the broken rib and pulls it out of his chest at a leisurely pace, ensuring that the excruciating pain of the bone dragging against Xeno's insides lasts as long as possible. Finally, the rib pops out of his wound and Flowey's vine swiftly thrusts it into Xeno's left eye, twisting it around in there as if trying to hollow out a space for it.

Xeno finds himself barely conscious now, and he barely is able to focus enough on reality to hear Flowey laughing hysterically at Xeno's excruciating pain. The vine makes its way back into his chest and Xeno hears Flowey say "No, don’t go yet! This is too fun! I w a n t y o u t o b e a w a k e f o r t h i s !"

Xeno's vision is already going dark as he feels the warm blood flow out of his wounds, some of it dripping into his mouth and the metallic taste of iron drenches his tongue. He feels the vine playing around in his guts and wrap around his heart, slowly and arduously pulling it from his chest. Xeno can feel as every vein attached to his heart is pulled out, and finally he sees his pulsating heart pulled from his body, blood pouring out of it. Finally, his vision goes black...

And he jumps awake suddenly, clutching at his chest and gasping for air, tears streaming down his cheeks. As he starts to return to reality, he feels something wrapped around him and he jumps up, screaming in terror. "NO, DON'T TOUCH ME GET AWAY!!” He takes a few steps and trips over his feet, falling face first into a glowing river beside them. Being already out of breath, he panics and chokes on the oppressive water, and a pair of hands reach down to pull him out of the water, shoving him down onto his back and pinning him on the ground.

"calm down!" The familiar voice exclaims. Finally, Xeno coughs out some water and looks up at Sans. "Oh... oh my god, SANS!!” After recognizing his friend, Xeno immediately reaches up to hug the skeleton tightly. "Oh fuck... I-I'm sorry... that just... th-that just... god, that keeps happening to me and you keep having to pull me out of it I’m so sorry, Sans!" Sans gently hugs Xeno back. “don’t worry, buddy. it’s fine. i don’t mind doing this as long as you’re okay. besides, it’s not that much of an inconvenience. i was on break anyway.”

Xeno takes a few minutes of silence to just calm his breathing, focusing his thoughts on the warm feeling of Sans’s arms around him and the tranquil sound of the water dripping from the stalactites on the ceiling and echoing throughout the cavern as they fall and shatter on the floor. The slightly irregular but natural heartbeat of the cavern fills Xeno with a sincere feeling of serenity. Finally, he pulls his face away from Sans’s chest and looks into his eyes, a small smile and a hint of redness on his face. “Thanks, Sansy… I… I don’t even know… what I’d do if you weren’t here to help me…” His smile fades, memories starting to creep back. “Y’know… without Wolfie here to protect me, I… I’m so lost… I’m not used to being on my own like this… but you already know that, huh? I don’t know why I’m telling you this… I just… it’s just that I feel so much… better… with you here to help me… when I’m alone, I… I get these visions… they’re so vivid and… and they can be so terrifying… I don’t know how to stop them… I CAN’T stop them… but Wolfie can. And… as long as I’m with someone I love… I don’t seem to get them. At least… I don’t get them as much. It’s like… as long as there’s someone with me to keep my mind distracted and away from those… thoughts… well, y’know.” He rubs at his forehead, trying to ease a headache coming on. “Ugh… I’m sorry; I’m totally just rambling now… my head hurts too… I just gotta relax…”

Xeno cuddles up beside Sans, letting the skeleton wrap his arm around him and rest his hand on his shoulder. Xeno leans his head against Sans, his eyes fluttering shut as he tries to take a nap so he can sleep off the pounding in his skull.  
It’s a bit amazing how a little flower can be so terrifying.

**~*^^*~**

After parting ways with Sans for the time being, Xeno slowly makes his way through the beautiful, shimmering caverns of Waterfall. He found himself constantly staring up at the ceiling, covered in shimmering crystals that make the whole place light up like the night sky. Xeno can’t even tell what time of day it really is anymore. Is it night? Is it day? In here, it always looks like it’s nighttime. It’s like the sky is lowered to the point that Xeno can reach his hand up and actually touch the “stars” once in a while. It’s like nature’s masterpiece; a brilliant picture of a clear nighttime sky during a new moon. Xeno tries to let his mind clear of all the nightmares clawing at his mind and just focus on the serenity of this amazing and wonderful place.

Taking a deep breath, Xeno tries to force a more pleasant dream into his mind. He imagines Wolfie walking here beside him, holding his hand tightly and lovingly. Xeno closes his eyes as he enjoys the journey, letting the sound of every footstep cleanse his mind just a little more and reinforce the feeling of Wolfie’s soft, protective hand holding his. He can almost hear the sound of Wolf’s rainbow tail slowly swishing through the glittering blue waters as the two of them walk together in unison through the dark paradise. Xeno smiles. “He’d really love it here; I just know it…”

Eventually, Xeno finds himself nearing an exit to the cavern. “Oh, is that it?” He asks himself. “But I like it here… Well, if that’s all, then… well, I’m one step closer to getting home then.” He exits the cavern and takes a look around, quickly gasping in shock when he sees a large and shimmering castle far in the distance. “Oh my god…” he breathes out in awe.

Xeno stares at the castle in the distance for what feels like an eternity. He almost feels like he can see the faint silhouette of Wolfie standing atop the highest tower of the castle, his wings outstretched and his hair and tail flowing behind him in the cool and calm breeze. Of course, Xeno knows that’s only his imagination. Wolfie isn’t actually there at the castle, waiting for him… no matter how much Xeno really wishes that he is.

Finally, Xeno turns away from the distant castle, slowly walking down the pathway leading into the next cave. A large waterfall flows down from somewhere far above the cave and down into a dark abyss below, and the lights from the castle reflecting off the shimmering, flowing water creates a distorted rainbow above the cave entrance as colorful glassy droplets flutter around Xeno as he reminisces on the memory of the rainbow wolf. “I’m getting there, Wolfie… I’ll see you soon…”

|\vvv/|

Ravina spends quite a long time talking to Gaster. Probably… a few hours. At first, not a lot of information was revealed by talking to him. All of his responses were just “DARK” or “NOTHING”. There apparently wasn’t much to say about life in the Void. Ravina supposes that it’s not surprising though. The Void is… well, void of everything save from dark matter and dark energy. So, a creature that lives out in the Void… probably wouldn’t have much to say about it.

However, the interesting information started to be revealed when Gaster was asked about his origins. His movements slowed down significantly when Ravina asked “how did you come to survive in the Void?”

“IT WAS A MISTAKE” He responds. Ravina raises an eyebrow at this. “Oh? That’s a new response. What do you mean by ‘mistake’?” Gaster holds up a hand but doesn’t make any motions for a moment, considering his words carefully.

“IT WAS A SECRET EXPERIMENT WE WERE WORKING ON.”Gaster begins. “IT BEGAN AS A SERIES OF TESTS ON HUMAN DETERMINATION. WE BUILT A MACHINE TO EXTRACT THE DETERMINATION OF HUMANS IN HOPES THAT WE COULD HARNESS ITS POWER. WE WERE NOT READY TO TEST IT ON A LIVING MONSTER… BUT OUR RESEARCH REVEALED SOMETHING THAT WE DID NOT EXPECT TO FIND, AND IT ENDED UP SPIRALING INTO WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN THE GREATEST SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGHS THE UNDERGROUND HAS EVER SEEN AND WOULD HAVE EVER SEEN. WE DISCOVERED THE EXISTENCE OF MULTIPLE DIFFERENT TIMELINES THAT A HUMAN WITH STRONG ENOUGH DETERMINATION COULD CREATE AND RECREATE WHENEVER THEY WANTED. THE POWER TO SAVE AND RESET. WE BECAME FASCINATED BY THE POSSIBILITY OF BEING ABLE TO CONTROL OR AT LEAST SEE INTO THOSE DIFFERENT TIMELINES. WE STARTED OUR OWN SECRET PROJECT TO LOOK INTO THIS DISCOVERY AND TRIED TO MODIFY THE DT EXTRACTION MACHINE TO BE ABLE TO SHOW US THE TIMELINES. AND, WHILE TRYING TO LOOK INTO THE TIMELINES, WE DISCOVERED A VAST AND INFINITE EXPANSE OF DARKNESS. THE VOID, AS IT IS CALLED. WE HAD NO WAY OF ENTERING THE VOID, BUT WE DID FIND SOMETHING… ELSE, ASIDE FROM SHADOWS AND EMPTINESS. WE FOUND… THE MULTIVERSE. AND, AFTER A FEW MORE MODIFICATIONS ON THE DT EXTRACTION MACHINE… I DECIDED IT WAS TIME TO TEST IT OUT. ON MYSELF. THEY DID NOT WANT ME TO. I INSISTED THAT IT MUST BE ME, AS WE COULD NOT HAVE TRIED TO BRING POTENTIAL HARM TO THE OTHER MONSTERS OF THE UNDERGROUND BECAUSE OF OUR SECRET AND COMPLETELY UNAPPROVED EXPERIMENTS. SO, DESPITE THEIR WARNINGS, I TESTED THE MACHINE ON MYSELF. IT WENT… HORRIBLY WRONG. THIS PARTICULAR TEST WAS TO SEE IF I COULD GAIN THE POWER TO TRAVEL THROUGH THE MULTIVERSE USING THE POWER OF DETERMINATION.” A long pause, and then… “IT FAILED.”

Ravina and the scientists took quite a while reading and rereading the text on the screen, trying to process the information that was just given to them. Finally, Ravina turns back to Gaster. “Wow… that’s one hell of a story, man. Uh… well…”

Suddenly, Gaster pushes himself up on the bed and grabs onto Ravina's shoulders, pulling himself off of the bed and cutting off Ravina’s next question. The scientists nearby make a move to restrain him, but Wolf shakes his head at them. "No, no... just hold on."

Gaster points to the computer, his hand shaking as the shadows that make up most of his body start to shift, trying to form something like feet that he can stand on. He manages to extend his body down so that he is resting on the floor, but can’t move by himself. Ravina lets Gaster lean on his shoulder and slowly help him make his way to the computer. Once he can reach the keyboard, Gaster swiftly reaches out to it, gripping the sides of the table to keep his balance. Then, once he feels he is stable enough to stand without the support of his hands, he slowly begins to type.

"IN THE VOID, EVERYTHING IS MADE UP OF ABSOLUTE NOTHINGNESS. THERE IS NO CONCEPT OF SPACE OR TIME. I DID NOT EXIST ANYWHERE, AND YET I FELT MYSELF ALIVE IN EVERY SINGLE POINT ON THE INFINITE SPECTRUM OF DARKNESS. THERE WAS A BEGINNING TO MY TIME THERE; THERE MUST HAVE BEEN. I KNOW THAT I WAS NOT BORN INTO THE DARKNESS AND I WAS NOT ALWAYS THERE... AND YET, I HAVE BEEN THERE FOR AN ETERNITY. HOW CAN AN ETERNITY HAVE A BEGINNING? HOW CAN IT HAVE AN END?" His typing becomes frantic, his entire body shaking as he attacks every key that he presses.

"CAN YOU POSSIBLY IMAGINE WHAT IT IS LIKE TO BE IN SOLITARY CONFINEMENT FOR AN ETERNITY?! I CANNOT DIE, NOR AM I ALIVE ANY LONGER. I MAY VERY WELL HAVE GONE MAD OUT THERE. I CANNOT EVEN SPEAK ANY LONGER. WHAT DO WORDS MEAN TO COMPLETE AND UTTER DARKNESS, AFTER ALL? I TRIED SO HARD TO BREAK THROUGH THE BARRIERS AND RETURN HOME, BUT I HAVE BEEN COMPLETELY SHATTERED. I AM A PART OF THE DARKNESS NOW. I AM THE VOID. I AM ONLY HERE IN PART. THERE IS SO MUCH MORE OF ME OUT THERE, JUST FLOATING... EXISTING SOMEWHERE, AND EVERYWHERE… I CAN FEEL IT. I CAN STILL FEEL THOSE PIECES OF ME BEING OPPRESSED BY THE SHADOWS. I FEEL IT ALL, AND YET I CANNOT FEEL ANY LONGER. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? I DO NOT KNOW, NOR DO I REALLY CARE ANYMORE. I HAVE FOUND THAT WITH AN INFINITE AMOUNT OF TIME, I HAVE EXPERIENCED EVERY EMOTION THERE IS, AND HAVE AT THE SAME TIME NEVER EXPERIENCED ANY FEELINGS AT ALL.

I

AM

NOTHING

NOW."

Finally, Gaster’s shaking body starts to break apart, and he slowly turns his head to look Ravina in the eyes. He moves his mouth, trying desperately to force out some intelligible words. “Da… deh dhaaar…” Finally, he manages to force out “dyaaa… unda… steee-ende…?”

The scientists simply stand in awe at what just transpired. Every question that they had asked Gaster before had simply been answered with one word, but it seems that, after enough questioning, Gaster finally started to come back to reality and REALLY tell them what they wanted to know. Ravina crosses his arms, glancing up at the screen and back down at Gaster, whose broken smile is wavering as he is clearly struggling to stand now, his hands gripping so tightly at the ends of the table that he’s starting to crush it just a little bit. Ravina holds out his hand to Gaster, who quickly grabs it with both hands and drags himself closer to the wolf. Ravina places his other hand on Gaster’s back, which gets slightly absorbed by the shadows, and helps guide him back to the bed. Using Saikik, he levitates Gaster up and back onto the bed, and his eye lights start to flicker.

“He’s tired out,” Ravina says. He turns to the scientists and the translator. “Go take this information to the boss. Let them know about Gaster and what just happened. The guy is clearly tired out and needs to rest.” The scientists all nod with a “yes, sir” and leave the room. Ravina looks down at Gaster, who appears to be just barely awake, his eyes almost completely shut and his eye lights barely visible. “Hey, Gaster?” He weakly glances up at Ravina. “Yee…?” Ravina thinks for a moment, considering what he wants to say and how exactly he wants to phrase it.

“…Do you want me to take you home, by any chance?”

Gaster’s eyes brighten up a bit at this, something resembling hope surfacing in his expression. “Ha… aom… pluh… pleeees…” Ravina smiles, giving him a small nod. “Then that settles it. Take a nice, long rest, bud. When ya wake up, and after I finish writing up a report on all this, I’ll be sure to take you home.” Gaster’s smile widens slightly, forcing out a couple more words before he falls asleep.

“Thaaa… enk… y-yoooouu…”

**~*^^*~**

Despite being on his own now, Xeno finds himself contented by the calming sounds of the cavern. He’s somehow managed to push aside all of his nightmares that continue to try and creep into his mind; he’s focused solely on making it out of Waterfall so he can get home. He takes a long, deep breath to fill his lungs with the cool, wet air and frowns; once again, he finds himself not really wanting to leave this place.

This time, however, he wants to stay because this place is absolutely gorgeous. Everything about this place has somehow managed to put Xeno at ease… Well, with the exception of… the flowers. But Xeno shoves aside those thoughts. _Not now,_ he thinks. _I’ve gotta be close to the exit now. So… don’t fall down yet. Don’t break just yet…_ He slightly speeds up his walking, heading straight into the darkest part of the caves yet, submerging himself in the depths of darkness.

For a little while, he can’t even see a thing. He has to tread carefully so he doesn’t trip on something in the water or slip into a crevasse or something that he can’t see. With every step he takes, he feels himself start to lose his cool just a little bit more. He shudders, suddenly feeling chilled from the wetness of his skin and clothes against the thick and cold air. “Oh god…” he says to himself, gripping at his hair in unease. “It’s… getting kinda scary now…”

Finally, a small blue glow appears in Xeno’s vision, way off in the distance. The glow reflects against the black water, mixing the shadows and blue lights together in a distorted yet beautiful harmony. Xeno swiftly approaches the light, seeing that it’s just some plant growing out of the water that emits a glow from the tip. Xeno gives it a small, curious tap and it flickers a little, then returns to its normal constant glow. He smiles, the shimmering azure glow filling him with sincere serenity.

Suddenly, the peace is shattered by the sound of large, heavy footsteps stomping through the swamp from behind him. Xeno sucks in a frightened breath, freezing in place. _Oh… god… no…_ He slowly and shakily turns his head slightly so he can see what is behind him; not that he doesn’t already know.

From the darkness behind him, Xeno sees one glowing yellow dot fade into existence as a low growl slowly grows louder with every footstep that approaches him. Xeno takes a couple steps away from the monster, turning around fully to face her. _Sans told me that this is…_

The monster slowly begins to emerge from the darkness, the shadows reluctant to detach from her armor. Only part of her is visible in this limited light, the glow of the swamp plant reflecting menacingly off of her as she stands only a few feet away from Xeno, her mighty presence cutting deeply into Xeno’s confidence. His entire body is shaking with fear, shrinking down a bit into the water, his antennae dropping as he grips feebly at the plant, as if that could somehow save him now. “U-Undyne…?”

Undyne growls as her hand rises slightly, her palm facing up as shimmering magic swirls around it. The magic coalesces in her palm and stretches out into a long pole, then a spearhead shapes on the end of it. A loud sound akin to electricity charging up resounds throughout the scene as the spear becomes tangible and drops into her palm. She takes one heavy step forward, making Xeno flinch down a bit more and let out a quiet and feeble squeal.

“You’re that half-human I heard about,” Undyne says in a sharp voice. “It’s about damn time I found you. I could smell you scurrying about in MY waters this whole time.” She takes another step forward, the ripples of water feeling as if even they are attacking Xeno. “You’ve read the ancient texts on the walls while you were running around in here at least, haven’t you?” Xeno glances up at her, unable to look into her eye.

“Uh, u-um…” he stutters. “Y-y-you mean, um… about the… The war between the-the humans and monsters, uh… r-right…?” Undyne nods. “That’s right. Then I don’t need to tell you why I need your SOUL, do I? We are going to DESTROY that barrier and take back the world that THEY denied us. Now…” she slowly raises her spear, her armor pieces clinking against each other as she prepares to attack. “This is your ONLY warning, half-human. Give up your SOUL now or I’ll RIP IT FROM YOUR BODY WITH FORCE!”

Xeno lets out a terrified little squeal and, in panic and desperation, he rips the swamp plant from the ground, submerging the entire area in near-complete darkness, save from Undyne’s glimmering eye and her blue spear. Xeno quickly turns to run away, trying to hide himself in the abyss of the cavern. Undyne’s roar echos through the darkness and her heavy footsteps chase Xeno through the swamp.

Xeno refuses to turn to see where Undyne is; he doesn’t WANT to know how close she is to catching him. He prays to the gods that the shadows will hide him just enough for him to escape from the monster’s assault.

He feels a tug on his metal wing and lets out an “EEP” in fear. He quickly detaches the wing; his wings are artificial, after all. “YOU CAN HAVE THAT WING!” He screams. “I’LL ASK WOLFIE FOR A NEW ONE!!” The shock of having the wing completely detach from Xeno’s body shocks Undyne and she stands there for a moment, holding the wing. However, it isn’t long before she lets out another roar and, tossing the broken wing aside, quickly starts chasing after Xeno again.

Making his way through the swamp, Xeno eventually sees a light in the distance. He almost feels relief wash over him, but knows that Undyne could be right behind him so he can’t let himself slip up just yet. He watches the light grow bigger with every step he takes towards it and finally…

He’s free! He looks around, seeing a large crag in his way, but there’s a small cave that seems to lead right through it. Behind the crag, Xeno can see some sort of machinery… but he can’t focus on that right now. He sucks in a breath, listening for Undyne in the dark cave behind him…

Nothing. He lets out a sigh of relief, no longer holding his breath as he slowly makes his way towards the crag cave, still trying to catch his breath from the chase that just took place. “Oh god…” he groans. “That… I just hope that’s it…”

Suddenly, his head snaps up a when he hears that familiar menacing voice call to him from above. “HALF-HUMAAAAAN!!” Xeno squeals and jumps back a bit, looking up to see Undyne standing atop the crag, the black and red lights of the Underground shimmering off her armor from behind, shrouding the part facing Xeno in shadows. “You didn’t really think I’d just let you go, did you?”

Xeno jumps in shock when he sees her standing up there. How exactly did she get there?! Well, not that it really matters now. He squeezes his eyes shut, preparing for her to attack. Instead, she roars and throws a spear down at him. It clicks against the rocky ground and Xeno looks at it. “Nyeh?”

“You’ve come this far already,” Undyne says, her hands rising to her helmet. “And I wouldn’t feel nearly as satisfied if I killed you without a fair fight.” She pulls off her helmet, her long red hair waving in the wind, reminding Xeno of Wolf for a moment. Undyne smiles a toothy grin at Xeno, her one good eye shimmering in anticipation for their battle. “So come on, half-human! Show me your determination! Or you can run away like the coward you are!”

Xeno glances around, noticing the glimmer of a SAVE point just behind him. He quickly uses it, still not sure what exactly it is for but again, “save” is a good word so maybe it WILL save him if he messes something up here.

After taking a breath to psyche himself up, he steps towards the spear that he was given and picks it up. He saw Wolfie using spears to fight before many times; he used to prefer swords, but recently his weapon of choice has been this Dark Saikik weapon called “Shadowspear”. So… if he really NEEDS to, Xeno can probably try and imitate what he saw Wolf doing when he’d watch his fight…

But still… he doesn’t WANT to hurt Undyne, even though she CLEARLY wants him dead.

Xeno raises his head and Undyne smirks down at him. “Perfect!” She calls down to him, clenching her own spear in excitement. “Maybe you’re NOT a complete coward!” With a final roar, she jumps up into the air, the shine of her armor hitting right down at Xeno, then she comes crashing down in front of Xeno, her spear pointed downward. The groundbreaking crash shakes the entire area, the spear getting plunged into the ground. Undyne rises and snatches her weapon from the ground. “NGAAAAAH!” She screams in determination. “Let’s DO this!”

Undyne’s eye shimmers once more and the flashing begins, her armor going black with white shining edges and filling the area with a sense of justice and determination. Undyne raises her spear, which glows green for a moment, and Xeno raises his borrowed spear to protect himself as she swings it at his SOUL. The attack goes right through the spear, however, but when the green glow passes over his SOUL it doesn’t take damage. Instead, it now has shimmering semi-translucent green plating over it, akin to armor. The invisible box that Xeno is trapped inside shrinks to surround him and his SOUL to the point where his SOUL can’t move at all. He looks up at Undyne towering over him.

“There’s no running away now! You’ve gotta face this head on, half-human!” She raises her spear, glowing a greenish-blue and slices it across the air in front of her, the magic that falls from her spear shifting into small yellow arrows. Undyne tosses up her spear and it flips into the air a bit, then she catches it again, slicing at the arrows she created and sending them one at a time at Xeno. Xeno tries to move his SOUL out of the way but, sure enough, he can’t. In an attempt to block the arrows coming towards him, he holds up his spear in front of his SOUL. The arrows clink right off the spear, but the force of it moves Xeno back just a tiny bit with each successful block. Undyne laughs, preparing her spear for another attack. “Not bad, half-human! Then… how about THIS?”

Another wave of arrows is shot towards Xeno, who continues to stand his ground, blocking the attacks. This time he has to turn a bit to block some attacks from the side, but he manages to do so without problems. Seeing that he’s successfully dodging her attacks, Undyne starts to make the arrows a bit faster and meaner. “I’ll be honest with you, half-human…” she says as she summons lines of arrows around her and disperses them to be flung at Xeno. “I don’t know WHAT the hell you really are.” An arrow from behind pierces Xeno’s SOUL, making him let out a pained growl. He quickly stumbles back to try and block the rest of the arrows.

“I don’t get you,” Undyne continues, her eye seeming to twitch a bit. “You’re so WEAK compared to the things that Alphys showed me in those documentaries. You won’t even fight back when I give you a clear chance to!” She slashes her spear at Xeno’s SOUL, returning it to purple. Listening to Undyne’s words, Xeno doesn’t even notice the spear coming from the side which gets a clean hit on his SOUL. “Gah…” he growls, clutching at his damaged SOUL. “Undyne… I don’t WANNA hurt you…”

Xeno’s words seemingly fall on deaf ears as Undyne simply sneers in response. “We’re so close to freedom!” She exclaims, raising her spear and summoning a mess of smaller spears around Xeno. “You’ve got a human SOUL, and I’m TIRED of waiting for another human to fall down so we can FINALLY escape!” The spears shoot directly at Xeno’s SOUL and he stumbles around, trying to dodge them as best he can. He falls to his knees after the attack, barely able to stand anymore. Undyne is… absolutely relentless. He raises his head to look at the monster, who takes a couple steps towards him. “Your ‘kindness’ is gonna get you KILLED here. Now STOP being so GOD DAMN RESILIENT!!”

The ground around Xeno lights up with a white light and tiny spikes appear from the lights. Xeno quickly struggles go his feet and jumps away from the attack…

But it’s too late.

One little misstep and Xeno ends up falling right into another spear from the ground. Xeno gasps in shock as he watches his SOUL split in two as the entire world immediately turns to black. He finds himself frozen in place, his hand reaching for freedom and his eyes looking down at his SOUL as it shatters into a million tiny sparkling pieces. Is… that… it…? Xeno thinks as he slowly starts to regain the ability to move. He finds himself just floating in some sort of nothingness… almost like the Void…? Two boxes appear before him: “CONTINUE” and “RESET” are the words in each of them. He drifts towards them a bit, just a little bit confused… and by a little, he means VERY confused. “Uh… c-continue… I think…?” Xeno hesitantly pokes the “CONTINUE” button and the entire world fades into white. He braces himself, kinda expecting something terrible to happen…

But when he hears the sound of the wind howling and he feels the cutting warmth of stray beams of light on his skin, he blinks open his eyes and looks around, finding himself right back in front of Undyne’s crag. He looks up, seeing Undyne waiting for him as she was before the battle begun. Xeno slowly starts to understand what just happened. “Oh my god it really DID save my life!”

Xeno quickly runs up to the spear on the ground and looks up at Undyne. “So, you’re really NOT a complete coward!” She says. Xeno stands back and prepares himself for his second attempt. _Apparently… he thinks. I was somehow… revived, or something… but Undyne doesn’t seem to realize it… right?_

The world returns to the monochrome and three arrows are sent towards Xeno, who blocks them easily. These first attacks are relatively simple compared to how she’ll get soon. Still, the fact that Xeno has that SAVE point that will revive him gives him just a little more confidence. _I CAN win this then…_ he thinks as he blocks the arrows being shot at him, already knowing how they’re going to come. _But… I don’t know if I have a limited number of deaths, or… or whatever! I still have to convince Undyne here not to fight me!_

Xeno somehow manages to get to the end of Undyne’s green SOUL attacks with few hits on him, but he still got tripped up by the spear that was sent at him just after his SOUL returned to purple. He forgot about that one.

Still, he finds that he isn’t quite as tired out this time as he was last time. This is practically a miracle, Xeno thinks as he jumps around and slides under the spears that Undyne sends at him with more grace than he would have normally been able to do had he not seen this all before. _I should be dead right now, but I’m not. I think… there really IS hope for me to get home then, isn’t there?_

After a few spear attacks, Undyne roars and throws her arms up. She throws her spear at Xeno, which returns his SOUL to green again as she turns around and suplexes a giant boulder nearby, just because she can. Xeno jumps back in shock at that, holding the spear up to protect himself. “Okay, well, fuck. You’re strong; I get it. Calm down though! I just wanna be friends!” Undyne re-summons her spear and glares intimidatingly at Xeno.

“You think you can SPARE me?!” She spits, almost amused by the thought. “You must be freaking KIDDING me! You think I’m going to take mercy from the likes of YOU?! I will NEVER give up!” She summons another barrage of arrows that Xeno hasn’t seen yet, so his dodging becomes a bit less refined.

After a few more rounds of that, Undyne screams in determination and knocks off the green armor on Xeno’s SOUL with a quick swing of her spear, then flashes Xeno a menacing grin, her eye glittering for a moment as she angrily clutches her spear with both hands. “I’m DONE with this stupid game! Come at me! FIGHT me, you… you…! NGAAAAAH!”

Undyne suddenly lunges at Xeno, holding up her spear. Xeno gasps and rolls out of the way of her attack, then holds up his spear to block Undyne’s as she tries to slash at his face. Xeno stares up at Undyne, sweat running down his face as he struggles to force Undyne off him. Finally, he manages to summon up just enough courage and strength to shove Undyne back and scramble to his feet, using the spear to hit Undyne in the side under her left arm. Caught off guard by the actual attack, Undyne grunts and stumbles back a few steps, then shakes her head and excitedly bounces her spear in her hands. “YES! FINALLY, you’re ready to start the REAL battle!” She grins spitefully, holding up a hand and motioning for him to attack. “Come on, you mother fucker! Show me what you can REALLY do!”

Something about the way Undyne fights reminds Xeno of his training that he had so long ago… and it reminds him of the tenacity and conviction that Wolf has when he fights. Xeno realizes that if he’s gonna win this, he’ll have to show that same bravery here. And… somehow, Xeno actually finds himself filled with that feeling right now. He jumps into a fighting stance, holding the spear in both hands and smirking. “Fine! Then let’s dance, Undyne!”

Xeno rushes towards Undyne, clutching his spear tightly. Undyne holds out her spear and blocks the attack, countering with one of her own. Xeno, however, expected that attack and he jumps back to avoid it. Undyne slashes her spear at Xeno, who slashes his back and the two magical weapons collide with a loud, reverberating clang. Undyne and Xeno’s eyes meet for a moment, feelings of excitement flowing between the two of them like electricity. Xeno could just TELL that this battle between the two of them has been one of, if not THE, most exciting battled Undyne’s experienced in quite a while; possibly the most fun one she can even recall.

_There’s still hope,_ Xeno thinks as the two enjoy their dance of spears as the water rushes out of the caverns and down into the abyss below their battlefield. The wind is howling, blowing glittering flower petals out from Waterfall and illuminating their fight. Somehow, even though it’s been a long time since Xeno’s had to fight like this, he seems to be doing pretty darn well…

Or is Undyne holding back?

Finally, Xeno begins to feel tired out as the two of them cease their movements for just a second so they can catch their breath. Xeno looks up at Undyne, the both of them hyperventilating, and quietly breaths out “Undyne… you… we can… we can call this a draw… if you want…” Undyne wipes some sweat off her brow and stands tall once again, smiling down menacingly at Xeno. “A DRAW?! You must be JOKING! One of us WILL come out of this a winner, and it’s gonna be ME!”

Undyne tosses the spear at Xeno, who narrowly dodged the attack. He grips his own spear tighter, preparing himself as Undyne summons a new spear, this one seeming even stronger and more menacing than the last. “Come ON already!” She roars and jumps into the air, then comes crashing down at Xeno, who rolls out of the way and knocks back Undyne’s spear as she slashes at him. The spears clang against each other a few more times, until finally Xeno delivers one final slash at her armor, somehow managing to rip it open and even cut into her flesh underneath. Undyne gasps, dropping her spear and falling to her knees. “F-fffuck…”

Xeno steps back in shock at this; he didn’t expect the attack to do THAT much to her! He immediately tosses his spear aside and kneels down in front of Undyne, looking at her with worry in his eyes. “U-Undyne…?!” Undyne growls, her head lowered and facing the ground as she clutches her wound. “Ngaaaahhh…” she growls out. “You’re… stronger than I thought… half-human…” Xeno frantically pulls her hands off her wound and looks at it, trying to see how badly he REALLY hurt her…

It’s bad. She’s been practically cut in half. Xeno pulls his hands back and covers his mouth as he starts to tear up. “Oh god! I’m sorry! I’m so, so sorry! I didn’t think I’d really hurt you! Undyne, I… I really… REALLY didn’t mean to…!”

Suddenly, Undyne grabs Xeno’s shirt tightly with her shaking hand and slowly raises her head to look Xeno in the eyes, that familiar yellow sparkle of DETERMINATION returning with a burning passion. “You think… I’m gonna give up that easily…?!” She struggles for a moment, then manages to shove Xeno onto his back and slowly rises to her feet, resting her hands on her knees and breathing heavily at the ground, her eye squeezed shut. “Gah… ngaaah…”

She raises her head as Xeno notices her feet start to waver, about to turn to dust. Still, Undyne stands firm, re-summoning her spear and slashing at Xeno’s SOUL, turning it green once more. She smiles as if nothing is wrong and sends another barrage of arrows at Xeno, who just barely manages to block them with his vision going blurry with tears. “Undyne…” he squeaks out, clutching the spear again and holding it close to him. “Undyne, PLEASE… just… just calm down a little bit… o-okay? I’ll… I’ll get help… or s-something!”

Undyne laughs heartily, the distortion of her body slowly creeping up her legs and dust beginning to blow away in the howling wind. “You’re gonna have to try a little harder than that if you wanna beat ME!” She raises her spear, he entire body wavering and shuddering as some more arrows shoot towards Xeno, who desperately blocks them and wipes away some of his tears. “Undyne… w-wait… just please stop… o-okay?”

As if she can’t even hear Xeno anymore, Undyne just summons more arrows to attack Xeno with, who doesn’t even have the motivation to try and block them this time. He drops the spear and lets the arrows pierce his SOUL. He cries out in pain and Undyne’s determined expression wavers, but only for a moment. “What… are you… DOING?! Don’t you FUCKING give up NOW!!”

One more barrage or arrows are flung towards Xeno, but they are significantly slower and weaker now. Xeno just lets the arrows slice into his SOUL, and he drops to his knees in pain. Undyne’s eye twitches involuntarily and Xeno looks up at her, a tear seemingly starting to form in her eye. “You… have a… spear to block… them with… what the HELL… are you DOING…?!” She summons three final arrows, glaring down at Xeno with watery eyes. “DON’T YOU… DARE… DON’T YOU D A R E LET ME… KILL YOU NOW… YOU… FUCKING… C O W A R D . . . !” She sends the arrows at Xeno, who simply stares into Undyne’s eyes, tears dripping down onto the black, rocky ground and as each of the arrows gets close to him, they suddenly turn and drop straight to the ground, then fade away. Undyne shuts her eye, attempting to stop her tears from creeping out, but failing. “You… how… why… how DARE you…”

Undyne falls to her knees once more, her entire body starting to turn to dust. She growls, scratching desperately at the rocky ground. “Y o u w o n , a l r e a d y . . .” She growls out, staring down at the ground. “G e t o u t o f h e r e b e f o r e I . . . c h a n g e m y . . . m i n d . . .” She weakly crawls over to Xeno and grips at his shoulders with her barely-tangible hands, glaring into his eyes. “G o . . . A w a y . . .” Xeno suddenly pulls her into a hug, crying into her shoulder. “NO!” He screams, clutching her tightly. “I don’t want you to die!! I don’t WANNA kill anyone! We were just… we were just g-getting to understand… each other…”

Suddenly, Undyne shoves Xeno away, struggling to get back on her feet. She clenches her shaking fists as her body miraculously begins to reform. “If you think… I’m gonna die… from THIS…” She roars in determination as her body reforms… but starts to melt away instead. “I WON’T DIE!!!”

Xeno gasps in shock, scurrying back a bit away from the warrior. He watches her body slowly start to drip and melt as her glittering eye stares down at him. “I WON’T FUCKING DIE, SO GET OUT OF HERE BEFORE I KILL YOU!!!”

Shocked and terrified, Xeno nods and scrambles to his feet, running away through the cavern as fast as he can, refusing to look back as Undyne’s melting screams ring out throughout the Underground. Xeno covers his face as he walks, feeling the shame and horror crawling on his back. “Oh god… no… not again… I forgot that… that I actually C-CAN… d-do that…” Xeno had thought that things were gonna be okay after he learned that he can SAVE his life with that glimmer…

Xeno just prays to the gods that Undyne wasn’t lying when she insisted that she isn’t really going to die.


	5. It’s Raining In Their World ~ The Show Finally Begins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is probably my favorite chapter of this story

_It's starting to get kind of hot now,_ Xeno thinks as he slowly makes his way through the cave. He's already sweating from the last battle he had, and the heat certainly isn't helping him calm down from it.

He closes his eyes, hoping to send his mind to somewhere nicer than this, but is instead met with a vision of Undyne's body shaking as pieces of her melt and drip onto the rocky ground... Her face distorted as she screams out in pain but tries to stay determined despite it all... her screams and words getting more and more gargled as she chokes on her own melted flesh and blood... That image is burned into Xeno's mind forever now. He claws at his face, feeling like there's some kind of evil on him that he wants off immediately. "Ngaaah..." he growls at himself. "I can't believe... I let that HAPPEN..."

He doesn't even notice when he exits the cave and ends up in a volcano-like region with magma rivers flowing around underneath and around the rugged ground. Finally, he peeks his eye out from between his fingers just so he can see where he's going. _I just want to go HOME,_ he thinks. _I'm TIRED of this place... I'm not having fun anymore..._

Suddenly, as he approaches a bridge that looks like it could very easily burn up in this heat, Xeno feels something grab onto his shoulder. He gasps and lets out a startled "EEK", grabbing the stick he picked up a while back and turning around, harshly smacking the monster with the stick, breaking said stick in half. Xeno freezes when he sees who it is. "...Oh."

"heh heh," Sans chuckles, rubbing at his forehead where Xeno hit him. "well... that was k-kinda rude, huh?" He seems to actually be in a surprising amount of pain, despite only having taken one little attack. Xeno starts to panic again a little bit. "S-Sans! Uh, um... I-I'm sorry!" Sans shrugs, then stumbles over to one of his sentry stations nearby, resting on there as he rubs his head. “it’s fine, buddy. i’ll be fine.” Xeno follows him over, full of worry and fear. “H-how did a hit from a stick hurt you that badly?!”

Sans looks up at him as he slurps down some ketchup from a bottle that he pulled out of thin air. After taking a long sip of that, he says “the easiest way to put it i guess would be that i have 1 hp, so i’m a bit fragile.”

“ARE YOU GONNA DIE BECAUSE I ACCIDENTALLY HIT YOU WITH A STICK?!” Xeno exclaims in horror. “Oh fuck! I’m sorry! Please don’t leave me!” He hugs Sans as tightly as he can without potentially hurting him. “I love you don’t die on me now!!” Sans rolls his eye lights and pats Xeno on the back. “nah, don’t worry about it. i’m not dying just yet. you can’t just stick me into a grave that easily, buddy.” He laughs happily and Xeno pulls back from him, chuckling and then letting out a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank fuck! I thought I lost YOU too!”

After a short little chat that helped calm Xeno’s nerves after that last battle, Xeno heads out into the next area, which Sans told Xeno is named Hotland. _What a fucking lazy name,_ Xeno thinks to himself as he approaches some kind of laboratory. _Hey, at least Waterfall sounded cool and Snowdin is like “snowed in”, but “Hotland” is just… “hot land”. That’s BORING and kinda LAME, actually. Who the hell named these places?! I could probably come up with better names myself!_ He shrugs that thought aside as he stands in front of the door to the lab. “There doesn’t seem to be anywhere else to go…” he says to himself. “So I guess I should just… y’know, ask to pass through.”

Xeno reaches out to knock on the door, but the door slides open on its own when his hand gets close, making him jump back in surprise. “Eek!” He squeaks out. After a few seconds of nothing trying to kill him, he hesitantly takes a few steps into the lab.

It’s dark inside, save from the light of a screen after the entrance hallway. Xeno makes his way down the hallway, half hoping that someone shows up and half praying that no one does. He calls out into the darkness, his voice shaking. “H-hello? Is anyone… home…? Er, here…? I don’t know if this is actually someone’s home…”

He peeks out of the hallway and into the main room. There’s a large monitor nearby and Xeno looks at it, seeing… Wait, was that Flowey? For a split second he could have sworn he saw Flowey’s face blown up on the screen and staring down at Xeno with that melted and distorted smile. He was so close that Xeno could see a small glimmer of red in the flower’s eyes, but it was swiftly engulfed in a soulless darkness… and then it was gone and replaced instantly by his own face staring back at him. Xeno shudders, the image of him on the screen doing so as well. “Oh fuck no please not Flowey…”

Xeno hesitantly approaches the monitor, watching his image on the screen mirror his movements. "Well, THAT'S just a little bit creepy and I'm scared again..." After a little bit more examining, he frowns. “Oh god I look like shit. My makeup’s all fucked up and my hair is sticking out all over the place. Waterfall was beautiful, but my GOD it completely DESTROYED my fabulousness.” He sighs and looks around for where the camera is, but can't seem to see one so he decides to just quickly hurry past the monitor.

He stops for a moment, seeing a messy-looking desk in the darkness of the room, but can't make out exactly what's on it. It looks like papers and... little figurines? He steps closer to the desk and tries to make out what the figurines are of in the room lit only by the monitor. He gently picks one up, noticing that it looks like a human with cat ears and a tail. He smiles at it. "It's like Wolfie's human form, but half kitty instead of half wolfie!" He laughs quietly as he plays around a bit with the figurines like a child. He doesn't know the names of the characters, so he gives them his own names.

"Cat-Wolfie, help!" He makes the littlest one say. This one has smaller kitty ears and a fluffier tail. He makes the figure point to a different one, which is smiling happily and holding a bunch of flowers. "Save me from the cocky evil flowery meanie!" The first figure, the one Xeno named "Cat-Wolfie", heroically jumps in front of the tiny one to protect it.

"Have no fear, Xenie!" It says dramatically as it points heroically to the sky. "Cat-Wolfie is here to save you and be your knight in shining... fur!" It does a twirl, flicking its tail at the flower one. "Rainbow Tail attack!" The flower one gets knocked over and Cat-Wolfie laughs heartily. "Nyahahaha! YOU are the idiot THIS time, Flowey!" Cat-Wolfie turns to Xenie and literally sweeps it off it's feet... or stand. "Now, Xenie, I shall carry you away to freedom and there we will make out for fun but just platonically because we have a really fucking strange relationship and we're not actually like 'a thing' but we still do shit together like we ARE 'a thing' and it's kinda strange but I'm okay with this because neither of us are good with commitment." By the end of that speech Xeno kinda just reverted back into his own voice instead of the figure's "voice". He pauses, looking at the figurines, then places them back down. "Yeah, okay... I... think I'm done with these now."

Suddenly, the lights flash on and Xeno squeaks, quickly turning around to see some kind of yellow dinosaur monster behind him. She just stares at him awkwardly, wringing her hands, and Xeno stares back just as awkwardly, playing with his hair.

The silence lasts... a very long time.

An uncomfortably long time.

...Painfully long.

...

...Xeno opens his mouth to say something, but isn't quite sure what to say, so he closes it again.

...Silence.

This is by far the most awkward experience Xeno has had in the Underground yet. _And that's taking into consideration that time Sans caught me in his room m- never mind._ Xeno immediately cuts off his thoughts. _Let's not bring that up._

The monster is blushing now, smiling awkwardly at him. Again, Xeno is just waiting for her to say something. Just. SOMETHING.

ABSOLUTELY. ANYTHING.

Finally...

"I M-MAY HAVE BEEN S-STALKING YOU SORRY IF THAT M-MAKES YOU UNCOMFORTABLE!!!"

_THAT DID NOT HELP THE AWKWARDNESS AT ALL,_ Xeno exclaims in his mind, covering his face in embarrassment(both for himself and for her). _WHY COULDN'T YOU HAVE SAID ANYTHING ELSE?! LITERALLY! ANYTHING! ELSE!!!_

"I-I ACCIDENTALLY GOT A V-VIDEO OF YOU D-DOING THAT, UH, T-THING IN SANS'S R-ROOM THAT ONE TIME TOO I-I'M-I’M SORRY!!!"

"THAT'S SOMEHOW EVEN WORSE THAN THE FIRST THING YOU SAID!!" Xeno exclaims back, his face as red as a tomato. Her face, too, is a tomato; a scaly tomato.

"I'M SORRY IT WAS A-A-ACTUALLY REALLY ENTERTAINING!!!"

"OH MY GOD!!! THAT'S FUCKING CREEPY!!!"

"I KNOW IT IS I'M SO ASHAMED!! I'M TRASH I'M SIN I KNOW!!"

Xeno covers his face and groans, walking past her as she stands there in complete and utter embarrassment. “YOU need to NOT stalk people like that!” Xeno says, his voice muffled as he speaks into his hand. The monster turns to watch him walk away. “W-wait, don’t go yet! I-I-I was only s-stalking you because I, um… I l-like you… and… and uh… y’know, I um… w-wanna help you!” Xeno stops and turns his head to the monster, his eye peeking out from his fingers.

“Help?” He says incredulously. “By watching me when I think I’ve got some actual private time here?” The monster “eek”s in embarrassment and Xeno “eek”s back in shock at the first “eek”. After a few more moments of silence that neither of them really wanted, Xeno takes it into his own hands to break the silence because he saw how well it went when he let HER do that. Xeno takes a long, slow deep breath and looks at the monster, dropping his hands from his face. "Okay... a-anyway... who ARE you, exactly?" The monster smiles, trying to make things less awkward if at all possible.

"M-my name is Alphys!" She says. “Th-the King’s royal scientist! And, um… I-I was actually watching you because I w-was gonna stop you but, uh… I actually ch-changed my mind and now I, um, w-wanna help you! B-because you… seem pretty… cool… W-watching someone on a screen really makes you root for them… hehehe…” Xeno mindlessly twirls his hair around his finger, glancing at Alphys but not able to look her in the eyes. Not that he could even if he wanted to, as she isn’t able to look him in the eyes either. _God, we’re both so awkward how is this gonna work?_

Xeno shrugs, shifting his weight onto his other foot. “Well… that’s… nice of you. And by ‘help’ I assume you mean letting me stay here for a night or two so you can stare at me more closely and then let me go on my way to be traumatized by even more things until Sans comes and saves me because he’s the only ACTUALLY helpful guy here which is ironic because he’s also the laziest guy here.”

Alphys just stands there in silence for a moment, seemingly reflecting on that statement. Then she finally says "o-oh, that's r-right I guess i-isn't it...?"

Seeing how uncomfortable Alphys seems, Xeno mentally sighs; she DOES seem like she's trying to be nice. "Sorry," he apologizes. "I guess I'm just... y'know, we had a kinda... awkward first impression." Alphys blushes again and finally shyly looks up at Xeno. "U-um, yeah that... that's true. It... it's okay... um, s-so..."

Suddenly, a loud metallic clank is heard in the distance, making the ground shake a little. Xeno jumps in surprise and looks around fearfully. "W-what was that?!" He glances at Alphys, who has a worried look on her face as well. "Alphys, you know what that was, don't you?" She jumps at the question, staring at Xeno with a shaky smile on her face. "W-well, you see... I created this robot a while back..."

Another clank, this one a bit closer, and the quake is a bit stronger now.

"And he was supposed to be like a... a, um... entertainment robot..." Seeing the look Xeno's giving her, she quickly tries to elaborate. "L-like a TV star! N-n-not what you're th-thinking!! Uh, um, a-and... b-but when I became the r-royal scientist I, um... made some modifications to, uh... make him more... uh, useful...?"

Clang! The quake now makes Xeno stumble and fall to the ground. He shudders and quickly scrambles to his feet. "Useful... how, exactly?" Alphys face gets more and more worried as she talks, but keeps her awkward smile the whole time.  
"L-like, um... a h-human... extermination... program? Ehehe..." She pauses, seeing Xeno's look that says "what the FUCK, Alphys?!" Alphys jumps at the glare and continues. "B-but I tried to get r-rid of that... program... after I decided to h-help you!"

A final loud clank, this one sounding like it's right through the nearby wall. The quake sends Xeno into the air a bit but he manages to only stumble a bit but not fall again. He sloppily steps away from the wall, REALLY wishing that Sans was here to hug him. He WOULD wish that Sans would come and protect him, but... he doesn't exactly come across as the strongest monster out there. "1hp" isn't exactly "strong". He probably wouldn't be able to actually DO much to the approaching killer robot, but he'd definitely help because at least Xeno would die while being with someone he loves; he doesn’t know Alphys enough to know if he loves her. Alphys turns to Xeno, who already knows what she's about to say.

"B-but, uh..." she begins, wringing her hands. "As I th-think you can guess... it, uh... didn't work..."

Finally, the room goes dark and a loud crashing sound is heard. Xeno could tell that the wall was broken through because of the sound, of course, and the debris brushing against him. Luckily, the pieces of the wall weren't that big so they didn't hurt him or anything. A loud robotic voice announces the presence of the robot. The strangest thing is that it sounds almost... sexy? Erotic? Xeno shudders for two completely different and conflicting reasons.

"WELCOME, BEAUTIES!!" He announces. Xeno sees a grid of yellow lights flash on, with some of the yellow lights once in a while switching to red lights. "OH, I'VE BEEN WAITING SOOO PATIENTLY FOR THIS! I HOPE YOU'RE AS EXCITED AS I AM FOR THIS LONG-AWAITED EPISODE OF..."

Three spotlights lights suddenly flicker on, illuminating Xeno, Alphys and the... sexy rectangle with arms, holding a microphone. "METTATON'S FABULOUS QUIZ SHOW!!" He finishes, posing dramatically. He arranges the lights on his body to make it look as if he's winking, then plays some fun-sounding game show music.

Despite that thing being both a robot and a rectangle(and supposedly wanting to kill him), Xeno blushes as he stares in awe at the "killer robot", apparently named Mettaton. "Oh god that voice is probably the sexiest thing I have ever heard..." he breathes out quietly to himself. He glances over at Alphys, who is biting her nails in worry. "Alphys," he says in a questioning tone, making her jump a bit and blush. "Alphys... are you SURE you mean 'TV' star...? Because that voice kiiiinda implies... a DIFFERENT kind of 'entertainment'." Alphys squeals in embarrassment and covers her bright red face with her hands, turning away. Xeno pauses for a moment, waiting for some kind of actual response to it, but looks back at Mettaton when she doesn't say anything. "Wow, she's not even TRYING to deny it now..."

Mettaton gestures at Xeno in a showy way, rainbow confetti falling from the ceiling above him. “EVERYONE, PLEASE WELCOME OUR WONDERFUL GUEST!” He announces. “IT’S THE HALF-HUMAN WE’VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR!! THE BEAUTIFUL AND FABULOUS XENO!!”

Xeno blushes and rests his cheek in his palm, smiling shyly. “Oh, that’s so… so nice of you. I AM pretty fabulous. I’m… ehehe… I’m so honored that you noticed.” He then remembers that he looks like shit and he squeals. “W-wait, am I on TV?!” He exclaims in horror. “B-but my hair! It’s all messy! And my makeup looks COMPLETELY disgusting right now! My clothes look like shit too! I need a nice dress! C-can we take five so I can fix this?!”

Mettaton gasps and turns away, holding up his free hand as if covering his mouth(that he doesn’t have). “OH. MY. GOODNESS!” He exclaims. “HOW COULD I NOT HAVE THOUGHT OF THAT?! OF COURSE YOU CAN GO GET YOURSELF PRETTIED UP!!” He rolls up to Xeno and puts his hand on Xeno’s shoulder in understanding. “I UNDERSTAND SO WELL THE NEED TO LOOK YOUR ABSOLUTE BEST WHEN YOU’RE THE STAR OF THE SHOW!” He turns Xeno around and gives him a little shove. “GO ON, MY DEAREST GUEST! MAKE YOURSELF LOOK AS BEAUTIFUL AS ME, OR AT LEAST PRETTY CLOSE.” Xeno exclaims “THANK YOU, METTATON” and quickly runs off upstairs to find (and probably steal) Alphys’ makeup and dresses. Alphys hesitates, then runs after him. “W-wait for me, X-Xeno!”

Xeno quickly goes over to Alphys’ closet and throws the doors open. “Alphys, I need to borrow a dress from you immediately!” Alphys approaches him as he sorts through her clothes. “U-um, that’s okay… g-go ahead. I d-don’t wear them m-much… But h-hey! W-why don’t you just r-run away while he’s n-not watching you?” Xeno pulls a purple dress out of the closet and examines it. “Uh, no,” he says, seeing that it might be a bit awkward to wear any of Alphys’ clothes since she’s not really human-shaped… but it would probably still work. With some little adjustments, that is. “I am REALLY liking that rectangle, even though I kinda just met him. I don’t wanna just LEAVE!”

“But he wants to kill you!” Alphys exclaims in worry. “Y-you should get away while you c-can!” Xeno shrugs, slipping behind a bed box to get changed. “Nah, I think he’s cool. And honestly, if he DOES wanna kill me, he’d just follow me and then I’ll die while NOT looking fabulous and if I’m gonna die I’d like to at least look fabulous.” Alphys groans, pacing back and forth in worry. “Oh my god…”

Xeno flashily pounces out from behind the bed box after he changes into the dress, which is a bit short but it works. He covered up the tail hole by wrapping a pink ribbon around him. He’s also wearing pretty pink high heels and pink gloves instead of his usual black ones, both things he also decided to “borrow” from Alphys. He poses dramatically and looks at Alphys. “How FABULOUS do I look?” Alphys blushes and twiddles her fingers. “O-oh, um… v-very… very fabulous…” Xeno stands proudly with his hands on his hips. “Thank you, Alphys. You have confirmed what I already knew, but wanted to hear someone else say.”

He walks over to a table with a mirror on it and fixes up his hair and makeup. His hair is naturally kind of curly, but he usually straightens it every morning. Recently, since he hasn’t exactly had access to a way to do that here in the Underground, he’s just been going “all natural”. So, he just makes sure that his hair looks acceptable to him and lets it flow behind him, not bothering with his usual ponytail this time. Finally, he does a little twirl and winks at himself in the mirror. “I look absolutely beautiful!” He says. Then, he heads back downstairs to rejoin the show.

When Xeno comes downstairs, he struts up to Mettaton and poses. “What do you think, sexy rectangle?” Mettaton’s red lights arrange in such a way that makes it look like he’s blushing as he looks away coyly and pulls out a handkerchief to fan himself with. “OH MY! YOU... YOU ARE TRULY GORGEOUS, DARLING!! YOU ALMOST RIVAL ME IN BEAUTY!!” He excitedly tosses aside the handkerchief and pulls out his microphone once more. “WELL THEN, DARLING, LET’S GET ON WITH THE SHOW!!” Xeno smiles happily with his arms crossed and his eyes closed. “Yeah! Let’s do this quiz-!”

The world flashes into black and white and Xeno’s eyes pop open in surprise. “…Show.” He glances around to see Alphys standing next to and slightly behind Mettaton, who is waving to the cameras that Xeno can’t see but assumes it there. He stands there, frozen in surprise. “Uh… Wait, I thought this was a quiz show… with a sexy rectangle…” Mettaton turns to him. “OH, IT CERTAINLY IS!” A large screen is lowered into the screen and onto the ground. Mettaton jumps up and lays sexily atop it. “YOU’RE NEW TO THIS SHOW, DARLING! THE RULES ARE SIMPLE. ANSWER CORRECTLY... OR DIE!”

“THAT DOESN’T SOUND FUN AT ALL!!” Xeno exclaims, starting to lose his confidence already. Mettaton laughs as the first question pops onto the screen.

What’s the prize for answering correctly?

A) A sexy Mettaton plushie  
B) LOVE  
C) Sassy comments on your fanfic  
D) More questions

Xeno reads through the question quickly, then notices that there’s a time limit and jumps. “U-uh…! D!” Alphys gives Xeno a thumbs up as a correct jingle plays and answer D turns green. “BRILLIANT!!” He says, clapping his hands. “WHAT A SMART LITTLE HALF-HUMAN WE HAVE HERE!! NOW, HERE IS YOUR WONDERFUL PRIZE!!” Another question pops onto the screen.

Why is Hotland called Hotland?

A) Mettaton lives there  
B) Lava  
C) Heats Flamesman farted  
D) Inflammatory sinus infections

Xeno has to take a couple seconds to just process what those answers even ARE. _Why “inflammatory sinus infections”?_ Xeno thinks to himself in confusion. He shrugs, pointing to the obviously correct answer. “A, obviously.” The correct jingle plays and answer A turns green. “CORRECT AGAIN!!” Mettaton announces, sounding very amused. “I’M SO FLATTERED THAT YOU GOT THAT CORRECT, DARLING!! BUT NOW LET’S SEE IF YOU CAN GET THIS ONE!!” Question number 3:

What’s the ship name for Xeno and Sans?

A) Xenos  
B) Sano  
C) Xans  
D) …Why?

_So tempted to say D,_ Xeno thinks as he stares intensely at the question and answers. “What the hell…?” He isn’t positive, but he chooses C and apparently that’s correct. He throws his arms up in confusion. “But no really! Why?! Why is that even a QUESTION?! Where did THAT come from?!” Mettaton shrugs and taps at the screen to pull up the next question. “THAT’S NOT A QUESTION FOR ME! ASK THE AUTHOR OF THIS FANFIC! HE’D KNOW! NOW, SINCE YOU’VE BEEN DOING SO WELL, I’M SURE THIS WILL BE A VERY EASY ONE!”

Two trains, Train A, and Train B, simultaneously depart Station A and Station B. Station A, and Station B are 252.5 miles apart from each other. Train A is moving at 124.7mph towards Station B, and Train B is moving at 253.5mph towards Station A. If both trains departed at 10:00 AM and it is now 10:08, how much longer until both trains pass each other?

A) 31.054 minutes  
B) 16.232 minutes  
C) 32.049 minutes  
D) 32.058 minutes

Xeno just stands there staring in awe at the question and answers, his mouth agape and his eye twitching a bit. “I… I cant even READ all that before the timer runs out! What the ACTUAL HELL, METTATON!!” He looks at the answers and shrugs. “I… I… I…! I… guess… just… C! Sure, C!”

Suddenly, Mettaton clicks a button and Xeno feels a large shock run through his body. “WOW, THAT’S INCORRECT!” Mettaton announces in a shocked voice. “WHAT A TWIST!! OUR BEAUTIFUL CONTESTANT WANTED TO HUMBLE HIMSELF BY PURPOSEFULLY GETTING THE QUESTION WRONG!” Answer D lights up green. “THE VIEWERS ARE ABSOLUTELY ADORING YOU, XENO! YOU CERTAINLY KNOW HOW TO CAPTIVATE THE AUDIENCE, DON’T YOU?”

Xeno twitches a couple times after the shock he just had. “Oh my GOD, METTATON!!” He exclaims. “I… I mean, THANKS, BUT I kinda DON’T wanna die on TV!” Mettaton makes a dismissive motion with his hand. “OH, DON’T WORRY ABOUT THAT! THE AUDIENCE WOULD LOVE THE PLOT TWIST!” The next question pops onto the screen and Xeno groans.

How many dirty socks are in Sans’s room?

A) There’s a portal to another dimension in there which constantly emits them, therefore he has an infinite number of them  
B) 1  
C) 9,999  
D) Ketchup

“These questions are getting stranger and stranger,” Xeno comments, trying to picture Sans’s room in his mind. But the only two answers that are ACTUAL numbers are B and C, and neither of those could be correct… probably. But “ketchup” isn’t really an answer to that question, and answer A… is ridiculous. But, due to not having any idea and just needing an answer, he chooses A… and promptly gets zapped again as answer B turns green.

“NO, NO!” Mettaton says. “PAPYRUS CLEANED HIS BROTHER’S ROOM A FEW HOURS AGO, AND PICKED UP ALL OF SANS’S DIRTY SOCKS! EXCEPT HE MISSED ONE THAT WAS HIDDEN ON THE CEILING IN A SMALL GAP IN TIME.” Xeno groans. “How the HELL was I supposed to KNOW that?! And stop zapping me! You’re gonna mess up my fabulousness that I worked so hard on!”

Mettaton flinches at this and looks down at Alphys, one hand on his “cheek”. “OH, I KNOW VERY WELL ABOUT THAT, BUT THIS IS SHOW BUSINESS, DARLING! AND, OH, I KNOW! IT’S SO DIFFICULT FOR ME TO DO THIS, YOU KNOW!” He raises his finger to the sky as the next question pops up. “BUT ALAS, THE SHOW MUST GO ON!”

What monster is this? (A picture of half of a Froggit’s face appears beside the question)

A) Froggit  
B) Whimsun  
C) Moldsmal  
D) Mettaton

Xeno smiles, confident that he knows this one. He points happily to answer A. “A! It’s Froggit!” The zapping noise plays and Xeno flinches in shock… but doesn’t get shocked. “Wait, but that’s Froggit!” He says, not even realizing at first that he didn’t get shocked. The picture of Froggit zooms out to reveal Mettaton wearing a Froggit shirt and Xeno frowns. “Oh, that was cheap!”

He then realizes that he didn’t get shocked this time. He looks around, expecting to be attacked somehow, but doesn’t see anything happening. He looks back at Mettaton, about to question it, but before he can say a thing the robot cuts him off.

“I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU FORGOT WHAT I LOOK LIKE!” He says, crossing his arms. “DARLING, I’M HURT. OH, NEVER MIND THAT. HERE, MAKE IT UP TO ME BY GETTING THIS CORRECT.” The next question pops up.

Would you smooch a ghost?

“HELL YEAH!!” Xeno exclaims before the answers even pop up. He looks up at Mettaton, who is laying sexily on the top of the screen again, and points to him. “I’d smooch a robot too! I’d smooch ALL the monsters in the Underground, man! I love BASICALLY EVERYONE HERE.” _With, like… one exception, but we’ll not think about him._

Mettaton blushes and chuckles at this as the correct jingle plays. “OH, THAT WAS TRULY THE BEST ANSWER YOU COULD HAVE GIVEN! I THINK YOU WON THIS LITTLE GAME SHOW ALREADY, BUT LET’S CONTINUE GOING FOR JUST A LITTLE WHILE LONGER! WE MUST FILL UP ALL OF OUR TIME SOMEHOW! HERE, LET’S MAKE THIS FINAL QUESTION A FUN ONE!” One final question pops up, making Alphys let out a shocked and terrified screech.

Who does Dr. Alphys have a crush on?

A) Undyne  
B) Asgore  
C) Xeno  
D) Don’t Know

Xeno reads the answers and glances at Alphys, who is biting her nails in nervousness. Xeno really isn’t sure who Alphys has a crush on, but he takes a random guess, not wanting to choose D. “I’ll go with A,” he says with a shrug.

When Alphys lets out another shocked and horrified screech and the correct jingle plays, Xeno jumps in surprise. “Wait, I’m RIGHT?!” Mettaton sits happily on the edge of the screen. “THAT’S CORRECT! ALPHYS HAS AN UNDYING LOVE FOR UNDYNE!” He laughs and jumps off the screen, then rolls over to Alphys and puts his arm around her shoulder. “SHE IS ABSOLUTELY CAPTIVATED BY HER. SHE SCRIBBLES HER NAME ON HER PAPERS, NAMES VARIABLES OF CODE AFTER HER, AND EVEN WRITES FANFICTIONS OF THE TWO OF THEM LIVING HAPPILY TOGETHER! IT’S ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE!” He jumps away from Alphys and poses.

“WELL, MY DEAREST VIEWERS!” He announces. “IT SEEMS LIKE WE HAVE OURSELVES A WINNER! OUR FAVORITE HALF-HUMAN HAS WON THIS ROUND! BUT STAY TUNED FOR EPISODE TWO OF OUR HIGHLY-ANTICIPATED NEW SEASON FEATURING XENO THE FABULOUS HALF-HUMAN! SEE YOU SOON, DARLING~!” He blows Xeno a kiss, then retracts his limbs into his body and blasts off like a rocket, crashing through the ceiling. Xeno stares up as Mettaton’s form disappears into the distance. “…I love that sexy rectangle so much.”

**|\vvv/|**

“Are you ready, Doc?” Ravina asks as he walks into the room. He’s wearing different accessories now(he’s a wolf; he doesn’t exactly wear “clothes”): his crown of red and gold spikes(which is his actual crown that he owns as the king of Tooikuka), a cape that’s black on the outside and red underneath, as well as having two loose sleeves that are attached to the golden rings just beneath his shoulder and are a gradient red to black. He’s also wearing long golden gloves that go all the way up his forearms and cling to his arm, with the fingers being black instead of gold.

This isn’t his typical look; he prefers just the golden rings, the fingerless rainbow gloves and the red scarf that he got as a kind of “souvenir” from his last big adventure in another universe(He’s made it a new tradition that if he has a really big adventure in a different universe, he always picks up some kind of “souvenir accessory” to remember the trip by). He prefers that outfit because it feels more casual and fun, which he likes quite a bit.

However, when he’s going to a new universe that he’s never been to before, he likes to wear this outfit because it makes him look stronger and more threatening. Unknown universes can be very dangerous, and if the look can potentially make something with ill intentions hesitate for just a moment, that small opening could save his life.

That, and he just enjoys cosplaying as something cool.

When Gaster hears Ravina enter the room, he forms his face and hands from the mass of shadows and turns to look at him. He opens his mouth to say something, but only a silenced gargle and bubbling comes out, so he gives up and just gestures three letters. Ravina shrugs. “Well, I have no idea what THAT means, but it’s three letters and ‘yes’ also has three letters, so I’m going to assume you said yes.” Gaster nods to confirm this and the wolf walks over to him, squirming his arms underneath the shade of Gaster’s body and lifts him up. He looks as if pieces of him are about to drip off, and Ravina frowns. “Okay, wow,” he says. “That doesn’t look comfortable at all. Let’s hurry up and get to this ‘Undertale Universe’ before you literally melt through my arms.” He Breaks open a portal to the foreign universe and steps through, sending them both traveling through the Void.

Suddenly, as they get into the void and exit the safety of the universe, something strange begins to happen. Cracks start to form in the Saikik power that usually is what protects multiverse travelers from being consumed by the Dark Matter. Ravina shudders involuntarily as he glances behind him, seeing the Void breaking apart and consuming the pathway behind him. “Oh f-fuck no…!”

Gaster grips tightly onto Wolf, pulling himself closer as the shade of his body steadily drips off him and returns to the Void. He looks up desperately at Ravina, as if saying “I’m not going to make it, am I?” Ravina glances down at him, unable to respond out of legitimate fear. This isn’t just some dangerous monster trying to kill them; this is nature itself creeping up on him and trying to destroy him. This is completely out of his control, and THAT actually does scare him.

Ravina feels the tip of his rainbow tail get caught in the darkness, and he swiftly pulls it closer to his body and tries to speed up their travel as best as he can. The tip of his tail is now black…

Suddenly, the glimmering yellow Saikik pathway starts to break apart entirely, and Gaster’s body is significantly smaller now than it was before. “H-hey, buddy!” Ravina growls out as he clutches the shade tightly. “Don’t you fucking break apart on me now! I’m going here for YOU and if you’re not with me then I wasted my time!!”

The Saikik pathway itself starts to distort and Ravina starts to hear… voices. Whispers. He can’t make out what they’re saying, but they’re there. The Dark Matter that is seeping in through the cracks of the pathway start to look like hands and…  
Suddenly, there’s only darkness. Ravina can still faintly feel his body moving through the Saikik, but his vision has turned to shadows. He blinks a couple times and looks around, seeing green grid lines form around him, trapping him in a large cube in the Void. Ravina can feel his body in both places; traveling through the yellow light and at the same time floating out here in the nothingness. He raises his hands to look at them… he sees nothing, yet he knows that they’re there. He tries to look at his feet… he sees nothing, yet he knows that they’re there.

From the darkness, white lines that look like scribbles start to form around the green grid box. Ravina’s eyes dart around to see them all as they start to open up, some of them looking like eyes, some like mouths with sharp teeth, and some like eyes with teeth and a dripping tongue coming out of it. Ravina shudders and opens his mouth to say something, but finds that he doesn’t have a voice anymore…

But he manages to let out a gargled roar as he breaks into his final destination: the Undertale Universe. He falls to the ground and plops down, laying on the ground covered in rocks and sticks as he twitches and tries to force out something intelligible. “Gekkke… eh-ehki-!” He forces out, slowly pushing himself off the ground with his eyes squeezed shut as he coughs up some Dark Matter.

He forces himself to stand on shaking feet as parts of his body feel as if they’re melting. Actually… he blinks his eyes open, feeling that one isn’t opening quite as much as the other. I think I am…? He stumbles a few steps over to a river, hearing a squishing noise every time his right foot touches the ground as he sinks down a bit. He looks into the river at his reflection and tries to gasp, but only manages to choke on shade.

He looks almost as if he fused with Gaster somehow. His eyes look just like his, with cracks running down in the same places too. His mouth is a crooked black smile of Dark Matter and despite his body looking mostly like his shape, pieces of him have melted into the shade, like his right foot, which would explain the squishing noise and the sinking down a bit each time he stepped with that foot. He claws at his face, completely shocked at this. “Oh fahjkheeeeck!” He exclaims, vomiting up more Dark Matter onto the riverbank. “G-GHAASTKATKATTTKAAAR!” His voice is distorted; he finds it difficult to form words. In his mind, he can feel the presence of someone else…

Gaster says something in his signature font, but Ravina can’t make out what he says. Ravina growls a low, gurgling growl and forces out some words. “ghaSTr dFUZ FmbDI ImsaDTLEI!!” They’re barely intelligible, but Gaster seemed to have heard it…

Gaster continues speaking as he begins to separate from Ravina’s body, the process being excruciatingly painful as the wolf feel the shadows pull at every fiber of his being; his body, his bones, his mind, his soul… the darkness pervades everywhere within him. Gaster continues, ripping himself out of Ravina and collapsing on the ground, in pieces. Ravina also falls, holding back screams of pain as best he can. “Ghnn…” he grits his teeth to hold back, knowing that he’s not bleeding or wounded; his body is just filled with a sourceless ache. Finally, he growls out “graaaah… ffffuuuck….” and he takes a couple deep breaths, looking over at Gaster who is trying to reform himself. “You…” he says to the shade. “That happened… because you… are… the Void itself… huh…?” He wipes away some sweat and tears of pain from his face and breathes out. “The team… we send to… Uh, retrieve you said… they… th-they saw some little… dis-disturbances in their… uh, S-Saikik pathways when they were… bringin’ ya back… Whew… so I guess havin’… too much of the Void… in the pathway… causes some issues, huh?” He groans and lays down on the ground, rubbing at his eyes. “Ugh, GODS… I gotta rest now… gimme just… just a little bit, k?”

Finally, Gaster managed to reform himself and he stares down at Ravina, who appears to be trying to take a nap. Gaster shudders and gestures something.

**~*^^*~**

Xeno wipes a bit of sweat off his forehead as he exits the lair of Muffet. “Whew… glad I got outta THAT fine… nothing traumatic there besides… giant spider and a shit ton of smaller spiders. …Good thing arachnophobia is one of the fears I DON’T have. Also, she played really good music during that battle, so it was pretty fun.”

He looks to his side as he walks and sees a poster for a play featuring Mettaton. Xeno’s face lights up in excitement. “A Mettaton play?! I wanna see that!” Xeno hurries onwards, hoping that he’ll come across the play. As he speed walks down the hall, he eventually stops when he sees that he’s standing on a wooden floor. “What?” He says in confusion. He turns and sees a large curtain opening up to reveal an audience…

He’s standing on a stage.

Xeno blushes and quickly pulls out an MTT brand mirror that Mettaton gave him and checks his look. He smiles when he sees that he’s still beautiful. “Perfect.” He turns to the small crowd and does a cute pose, showing off the dress that he’s still wearing.

“hey buddy!” Calls a familiar voice from the audience. Xeno looks around and soon finds Sans sitting in a chair a few rows back, resting his legs on the back of the seat in front of him as he holds a hot cat in his hand. He waves at Xeno and takes a big bite of his hot cat. Xeno jumps and happily waves back. “Hi Sansy!” He calls to him. “I think I’m on TV again!” Sans gives Xeno a thumbs up and stuffs the other half of his hot cat into his mouth.

Suddenly, the lights dim and a spotlight appears, pointing to the fabulous robot standing on a balcony, wearing a pretty blue dress. Xeno blushes and immediately catches on. “Oh, my dear Mettaton!” He says dramatically. “I’ve come for you! Uh…” He pauses, trying to think of something else to say. “…You doing good up there?” _I ruined it._ Mettaton blushes and looks down at Xeno.

“OH, MY LOVE!” He announces. “I KNEW YOU WOULD COME!” He holds his dress as he runs down the stairs and approaches Xeno, holding his hands together in joy. “OH, THE STARS HAVE BLESSED ME AT LAST! IT HAS BEEN SO LONG SINCE I HAVE LAST SEEN YOU, MY LOVE!” Xeno steps towards Mettaton and places his hands over the robots, trying his best at improv acting.

“Oh Mettaton!” He says, trying to make it sound like he’s tearing up. “I’ve missed you so much! I…” He tries to quickly come up with something. “I know how hard it must have been without me…” _No, no… well, too late now. Roll with it, Xeno._ “I know, because it was even harder for me to deal without you. I spent every day and night thinking about when I could see you again…” Mettaton turns away shyly.

“OH MY,” He says, putting a hand on his “cheek”. “YOUR WORDS ARE SO SWEET, MY LOVE. BUT, OH!” He quickly gestures for Xeno to move closer to the front of the stage and they both look up at the balcony, then back at each other. “YOU DO RECALL THAT THEY DO NOT LIKE THAT I LOVE YOU, CORRECT? IT IS FORBIDDEN THAT I LOVE YOU... WE MUST BE CARFUL.” Xeno affectionately places a hand on Mettaton’s “cheek”, actually getting just a little flustered himself. _Oh god I’m really close to him now EEEK he’s so hot I know he’s a toaster calculator rectangle but dear god he’s still hot!_

“Don’t worry, Mettaton,” Xeno says lovingly. “There’s no need to fear. Because I love you, and…” Shit, where am I going with this? “…and they can’t make me stop loving you no matter how hard they try and keep us apart.” …Yeah, sure. Okay. That’s fine I guess. He then quickly whispers to him “hey, are we gonna kiss or…?”

“I DON’T HAVE LIPS TO KISS,” he responds, whispering too. “BUT, IF YOU DON’T MIND KISSING METAL, THEN BY ALL MEANS SMOOCH AWAY, DARLING~!” Xeno tries his best to hold back a fanboy squeal. _OhmygodigettokissMettatonyeeeeess!!_ He then leans in to give the robot a kiss. It really DOES just feel like kissing a machine… but Xeno is just happy that this particular machine is the fabulous Mettaton, so that makes this amazing. Sure, he knows that Mettaton’s trying to kill him, but honestly he still loves this sexy toaster.

In the crowd, Sans raises an eyebrow(kinda… because skeleton) at the act. “…huh. wasn't expecting that.” Then Xeno falls down a trap door that opened up in the stage and Mettaton bows, ending the play, then jumps down with him. Sans then stands and opens up a bottle of ketchup. “welp,” he says. “that was… entertaining.” He takes a sip of ketchup and walks behind the curtain, taking a shortcut to somewhere else.

Mettaton falls down and catches Xeno, placing him down gently so he doesn’t get his dress all messed up by falling so hard. Mettaton then flies up a bit and shows off the colored tile puzzle. “I HOPE YOU REMEMBER WHAT THE TILES DO, DARLING!” Xeno groans for a moment; he THINKS he does… but only kinda.

Nonetheless, Xeno really doesn’t feel all that intimidated by the robot. Sure, he IS trying to kill him… but Alphys is apparently helping from behind the scenes, and Mettaton doesn’t really seem super intent on actual killing Xeno. He simply shrugs and walks towards the tile maze. “Okay, let’s give this a shot…”

**~*^^*~**

“hey kid,” Sans says as he sits on the ground outside the MTT Resort with a bottle of ketchup in his hand, looking up at Xeno. “you’re safe. guess mettaton really can’t keep you down, huh?” Xeno smiles down at him. “Hehe… Yeah, I… I feel really happy now, actually. Like… like I feel really… just, safe here. Accepted. People seem to… like me. I said hi to Heats Flamesman and he was really surprised that I remembered his name!” He laughs. “His face was priceless! And then those two Royal Guard guys seem to like me too. And Mettaton! Oh boy, Mettaton!” He blushes slightly, smiling. “God, I don’t know WHAT it is about him, but MAN I love that guy! Sure, he tries to kill me, but I don’t think he’s REALLY trying to kill me. He’s so… ME. And he’s fabulous. Of COURSE I’m gonna love him!”

Sans chuckles, drinking down the last drops of his ketchup. “heh. yeah, he’s pretty much perfect for ya, bud.” Something in Sans’s voice sounds… off. And Xeno definitely notices it. He frowns and kneels down in front of him. “Hey, Sans…” he says, looking into his eyes. “Are you okay? It… sounds like something’s bothering you.” Sans is silent for a moment as he closes his eyes in thought, then opens them again and glances away. “yeah, i guess there’s something on my mind.” He winks at Xeno. “but i think i should buy us some dinner first. how about it? wanna join me?” Xeno smiles and nods happily. “Of course!” He says, jumping up and grabbing Sans’s hand, pulling him up to stand too. “Let’s eat! I’m starving!” The skeleton nods and stuffs his hands in his pockets. “alright then. follow me; we’ll take a shortcut.” He leads Xeno down a dead end alleyway, then they just suddenly end up sitting at a table inside a fancy restaurant. _He can TOTALLY teleport…_ Xeno thinks, resting his cheek in his hand.

Sans has his jacket draped over the back of his chair, choosing to relax in just his tank top and shorts. He’s not wearing gloves right now either; Xeno assumes they’re in his jacket pockets. It’s almost funny to Xeno; Sans is wearing such casual clothes, and then there’s Xeno in a nice purple and pink dress. Sure, it’s a bit dirty since he’s worn it the whole way through Hotland, but it’s still decently nice. Deciding that it’s not necessary to bother trying to be all fancy-looking anyway, Xeno steps out of his high heels and brushes them aside with his foot, then takes off his own gloves, placing them not very neatly onto the edge of the table. Xeno smiles and crosses his legs, enjoying the calmness of the restaurant.

“so, xeno…” Sans says after they order their food. “it’s been a while since we’ve hung out like this, huh?” Xeno nods. “Yeah, definitely… It’s nice to be able relax together again… and I don’t think we’ve ever gone to any fancy restaurants like this before. I like it!” Sans chuckles. “even though it’s only been two days since you left snowdin… heh. yeah, it does feel like a long time already. you’ve been busy, kid. and, heh…” His eyes show hints of sadness despite his smile. “you’re getting close. the core is right past this resort, and from there, you’ve just got new home and then… well, you get the point. you’re leaving soon.”

Silence falls on the two of them, the only sounds to speckle their hearing being the distant sound of dishes in the kitchen, faint muffled voices from the resort lobby and the sound of the candle’s flames, a golden-yellow color but tinted barely with red, shimmering low on the table. Xeno looks straight at Sans with a small frown on his face, his eyelids lowered slightly in sorrow at that realization. Is it really that close? He thinks. There’s no way that this is it. Something… something’s gotta happen to make his time here last longer. Something HAS to slow him down because otherwise…

He’s going to be gone already.

Sans turns away slightly; just enough to shroud part of his face in slight blue shadow as the candle lights only half his face. “i just wanted to have this one… last bit of time with you before you go. that’s all.” He sighs quietly, his eyes falling shut.

Xeno tilts his head slightly in sadness. “Sans…” He calmly reaches out to him, placing his hand palm down in the middle of the table. Sans, hearing the shifting of Xeno’s arm and hand against the clean white tablecloth, peeks his eyes open and sees the hand resting on the table, unmoving but clearly inviting him to join. His smile widens just barely and for a moment and he slowly lifts his own boney hand, placing it down over Xeno’s. Xeno smiles, looking down at their hands, one on top of another, studying how the dim and hazy lights of the restaurant place a screen of seawater blue over their hands, and the yellow of the candle highlights a smaller portion of Xeno’s fingers and Sans’s finger bones, almost as if giving one side of them a golden outline.

Neither of them seem to know what to say. Truthfully, however, Xeno finds that he doesn’t really feel like talking at the moment. When he looks around at the simple-colored yet flashily-designed room that’s covered in a blue sheet from the lights… when he focuses on the feel of the smooth and pristine white tablecloth, an intricate and fancy design sewn into it and creating little bumps and ridges underneath his fingers… when he looks over at Sans and admires how the yellow ember lights trace little partially-finished outlines on every one of his bones and making it so that each and every one is visible and stands out… When he just takes a moment to soak all of this up, Xeno figures that he doesn’t want to talk right now.

Sometimes, it’s nice to just sit in silent understanding and enjoy being with someone you love.

The waiter brings the two their drinks; Xeno got a Chardonnay and Sans just went simple and got a water. Funnily enough, it’s the first time that Xeno has seen Sans drink something besides ketchup. Xeno chuckles slightly at that, catching the skeleton’s attention. “what’s got your funny bone?” He asks, playfulness in his voice but in a significantly more relaxed tone as he rests his cheek in his free hand that isn’t gently resting atop Xeno’s.

“It’s just that,” Xeno starts, amusement in his voice but with a calmness that pretty accurately reflects Sans’s. “I’ve never seen you drink something that isn’t ketchup. I almost didn’t think you could drink anything else.” Sans chuckles and shrugs, letting his eyes fall shut to rest and just enjoy the moment. “yeah, i like drinking it… Because if i don’t ketchup i’ll fall behind.” Xeno lets out a quiet laugh at that, then takes a sip of his wine. “Ah… Sans, you’re so funny…” he says quietly, gently and carefully holding the wine glass in his hand, the ember light reflecting a gentle ray of gold off its smooth surface and making the drink inside the glass shimmer like a miniature golden ocean in Xeno’s fingers.

Eventually, after an undetermined amount of time passed, their food is brought to them. The two need to separate their hands to let their food be placed onto the table and so they can eat, but before they pull apart, Xeno feels Sans’s fingers give his hand a quick and slight squeeze; it’s barely anything at all, as if Sans was either too lazy to squeeze harder or he just didn’t want to accidentally risk hurting Xeno’s delicate hand. Or perhaps he didn’t even mean to squeeze his hand in the first place. A quick glance at Sans doesn’t give Xeno an answer to that.

They slowly pry their hands apart from each other as their food is placed down before them. Xeno got chicken marsala and Sans just got a burger, with plenty of ketchup of course. Xeno smiles at the skeleton as he cuts himself a piece of chicken. “There’s the ketchup I know you’ve been wanting.” Sans chuckles as he pulls the top bun off the burger for a moment to take off the three pickles on it; he forgot to say no pickles. Xeno watches as Sans removes the pickles and replaces the bun, then wraps his phalanges around the burger and lifts it to his mouth. “Don’t like pickles?” Xeno asks, then takes another bite of his chicken.

“no, not really,” Sans says. “i like most foods, but pickles are just one of the few things that i’ll always just pick right off my food if I find it on there.” Xeno smiles and swallows his bite. “Hehe… Yeah, I’m not crazy about pickles either, actually.”

The two enjoy their meals in silence, making small talk once in a while. Eventually, after Sans has finished his food and Xeno is getting pretty close, Sans lets out a quiet little sigh and says “so, this has… nothing to do with anything really, but… it’s been on my mind recently so i figured i could share it with you. besides, you’ve confided in me a lot; guess it’s only natural i’d feel like i can confide in you too.” Xeno slows his eating slightly to listen as Sans starts to tell a little story.

“see, back near where i first met you,” he begins, resting his arms on the table in front of him. “there’s this… big purple door. it’s… heh heh. well, when i first saw it i thought ‘hey, this looks like a fun place to practice some knock knock jokes.’ so, naturally, i threw out some jokes to the door, and then one day… i said a joke and someone... responded. there was a lady on the other side of the door. heh heh… and she sure did love my jokes. she even told me a couple of her own. it was great.”

Xeno frowns, suddenly recognizing who Sans is talking about. _Oh…_ he thinks, memories flooding back. _That’s… he’s talking about… her…_ He tries to keep his cool, continuing to eat at a slow but steady pace so Sans doesn’t start asking questions. He doesn’t seem to notice anything yet, as he continues his story.

“so i kept going back to her every once in a while,” he says, his eyes having fallen shut. “and we told jokes to each other through the door. but the other day…” His eyes crack open slightly, staring down in worry at nothing. “…she stopped responding. the door’s been silent for a while now. she could just be busy with something… at least i hope that’s all it is. but still, it’s got me a bit worried.”

Xeno has completely stopped eating now; he is trying his best to hold back tears. _That’s my fault…_ he thinks, blinking his eyes a few times to stop the tears from forming. _No… no, don’t dwell on it now… cry later, before you sleep, Xeno…_ Sans then adds one other little piece of the story.

“oh, right…” he says, remembering something. “and the last thing she said to me before she stopped showing up… it was about humans. she said to me ‘promise me you’ll protect any human that comes through this door.’ i’m not usually one for promises but… i guess i figured that keeping one little human safe wouldn’t be all that hard. i guess you’re close enough to a human that you’d count so… well, i’d like to think i did a good job at keeping that promise.” He smiles, letting out a quiet somber chuckle. “so, hey… guess there’s someone out there that really cares about you, xeno.”

Finally, at that last comment, Xeno couldn’t help but start to cry. He covers his face in his hands in a feeble attempt to hide his tears. Sans notices that, of course, and stands up, a worried frown on his face. “xeno, what’s wrong?” He steps out of his seat and goes over to Xeno, letting him lean into his chest and just let out his tears. Sans tenderly and slowly rubs at Xeno’s back to comfort him, quietly saying “it’s alright, xeno. you’re okay. everything’s gonna be just fine, buddy…”

Xeno cries quietly into Sans’s chest, clutching at his tank top. _I killed her…_ he thinks. _And she really DID care about me… I KILLED her… and now… her death has… Sans…_ He snivels, trying to just focus on Sans’s words of comfort instead of on the memories of Toriel.

Finally, Xeno calms down just a little bit and looks up at Sans, his eyes still a bit watery but better than before. “I… I’m sorry…” he apologizes, wiping away a couple stray tears. He glances back down at Sans’s tank top, which now has makeup stains where Xeno was crying. Xeno cringes at it. “Oh, dammit… I’m sorry about that… I shoulda… used a napkin or something…” Sans glances down at the stain, as if he didn’t even realize or think about it, then shrugs. “eh. not a big deal. i’ve got plenty of these.” He holds out his hand and helps Xeno stand, then leads the two of them out of the restaurant, gripping his hand tightly to try and make him feel secure.

They stop and stand beside the golden fountain in the bright lobby of the resort, contrasting heavily with the ambient blue and yellow lighting of the restaurant. Still, the reflection of the golden statue in the fountain’s water sends rays of golden light splayed out in different directions, constantly falling in different locations on Xeno and Sans as they stand together beside it. Xeno looks at Sans a bit expectingly and half worried. “Sans…” he says quietly. “You… you’re gonna stay with me tonight, right…?” He knows that they never exactly talked about the possibility of Sans staying the night with Xeno at the resort, but Xeno is just really hopeful that he will.

Sans gives Xeno a slightly surprised look for a moment, clearly having not thinking about that option before the question was asked. He glances down into the water for a second, seeing his reflection and Xeno’s being artistically distorted slightly by the ripples of water, then sighs and looks back at Xeno, smiling as usual. “sure, bud. i guess i could stay if you want me to.” Xeno smiles at this, feeling a wave of relief wash over him. “Oh… thanks, Sans…” He says quietly, leaning a bit closer to the skeleton and then deciding to pull him into a loving hug. Sans hugs Xeno back, giving him a couple gentle pats on the back. “of course, buddy. besides, it’s a long way home for me. so, rather than go all the way home, why not stay with you?” Xeno chuckles slightly, then says “they say home is where the heart is, y’know. So…”

This statement actually makes Xeno himself stop for a moment. _Home is… here, then…?_ He thinks. He pulls away from Sans just slightly, smiling as he gently touches their foreheads together. “So… I feel really at home with you,” he says in a quiet voice; almost a whisper. “I… I hope you also feel… that way.” Sans’s face blushes a faint shade of blue for a moment, then he chuckles and lets his eyes fall shut.

“yeah… i know… and... i feel that way about you too…”


	6. Stardom and Your Number One Fan ~ Twilight is Shining Through...

UNDYNE, LEADER OF THE ROYAL GUARD, HAS VANISHED

The headline for the morning news is grim and distinct, drawing the attention of both Sans and Xeno as they sit on the edge of their bed and stare in shock and unease at the TV. Neither of them are dressed yet, since they literally just woke up. Xeno was curious what was on TV at the moment and the first thing he saw when he turned it on was that ominous headline. He gasped and Sans had glanced down to see what had bothered him, then sat up quickly in shock as well. "oh fuck..."

  
Apparently, Undyne just went missing yesterday. She was last seen the day before yesterday, patrolling the swamps of Waterfall in the evening. Then, no one saw her return home and she wasn’t seen all day yesterday. She always can be found somewhere around Waterfall, and she isn’t home this morning either. Her dust hasn't been found either, so it’s unsure if she’s been killed and the dust just scattered already, or if she's been kidnapped or something. Xeno shudders at the information, gripping at the blankets on his lap. _Oh god that’s MY fault…_

  
Sans shoots a worried glance at Xeno, who is just staring straight at the screen, searching for some sort of silver lining in this or at least SOME explanation to show that it just MIGHT not be his fault.

  
No, it’s definitely his fault. And he knows that Sans is going to...

  
“ xeno, do you... know anything about this...?” Sans asks, placing a hand over Xeno’s twitching one. Xeno glances at the skeleton; he doesn’t look like he’s trying to accuse Xeno of this, and his tone backs that up... but Xeno’s going to have a hell of a time trying to tell the truth as best as possible without outright admitting that he may have accidentally killed the heroine of the Underground. He shudders; putting it like that only makes this more painful.

  
“Well.. uh...” he says, trying to find the right words. “I... I saw Undyne... on my way out of Waterfall, and... she... she chased me through a really... dark swamp and... I lost her, and then I just... quickly ran into Hotland. I... I didn’t see her after that.” I completely lied to him... he thinks, shame filling his conscience. He doesn’t want to admit to the truth... he CAN’T admit to that. Sans would probably hate him for it! ANYONE in the Underground would hate him for it!

  
Sans doesn’t seem to notice anything off with Xeno’s statement, seeming to be oblivious to the fact that it’s a lie. “oh, then... you didn’t see anything, huh?” He looks back at the TV, then quickly snatches the remote from Xeno’s side and smashes the off button, not wanting anything else to do with that. He flings the remote away and scoots a bit closer to Xeno, wrapping his arm around his hip. “i... can see you’re disturbed, xe. don’t worry about it, bud. everything’s gonna be fine. i’m sure undyne’s just... on a little vacation. she’ll be back soon.” Xeno forces a somber little smile onto his face and whispers “yeah... maybe... I hope so...”

 

**~*^^*~**

 

After their early-morning scare, Sans and Xeno get dressed(Xeno puts on his normal clothes this time; the dress is nice, but he likes his own clothes) and head out to grab some breakfast. Xeno tried his best to keep his demons from creeping up on him, but it’s not easy. He’s lucky that Sans is here, but...

  
He’s leaving soon.

  
As they approach the entrance to the CORE, Xeno stops and turns to Sans, who stares up at him. He’s giving Xeno his usual smile, but Xeno just senses that there’s something in there that’s just a little bit... less than happy. Honestly, Xeno really doesn’t want to go either. "you sure you wanna go, bud?" Sans asks, just a little hint of sadness in his voice.

  
_No, not really,_ Xeno thinks, playing with his hair as he looks at the skeleton. "Well... Yeah, I guess. I’ve come this far already... I..." he takes a deep breath, looking over at the CORE's entrance. "I have to keep going now. I’m almost there, so... I’ve gotta get home. And... I promise I’ll come back to see you again. Soon." He glances back at Sans, who has his eyes shut and his head tilted down slightly.

  
"yeah... i'll be waiting," he says quietly. "so will paps. we'll get you your own bed too, if you want. then you can stay with us all you'd like." He opens his eyes and gives Xeno a wink. "hey, let’s hurry this up. i'm not really a fan of long, drawn-out goodbyes. or drawn-out 'see you later's." He gently gives Xeno a pat on the arm. "you're going to be alright... h-huh?"  
Xeno quickly pulls Sans into a tight hug, nuzzling his face into the skeleton's shoulder. "Sans..." he whispers. "I... I know I’ll be fine. I’ve survived for this long. And... I’m sure... that I’ll make it out of here just fine. Thank you, Sans... you actually helped me out a lot... I... I really appreciate it..."

  
Sans jumps at the hug at first, then relaxes and hugs back, giving Xeno a pat on the back. "yeah... i know, buddy... and, xeno..." He pulls back from him a bit, giving him a wink. "stay determined..." Xeno nods, a somber little smile on his face as Sans removes his hands from Xeno's arms and shoves them into his jacket pockets. He takes a few steps back from Xeno, then pauses, glancing off into the distance with an uncertain look in his eyes, then sighs and gives Xeno a small cheerless wave as he slowly shuffles away, hunched over slightly as if there’s a little burden weighing on his spine. He eventually reaches the door to the resort and reaches out as if to open it and return to inside, but changes his mind and drops his hand to his side, choosing instead to just pop out of existence with his magic.

  
Xeno sighs and turns back to the CORE, his eyes filled with a newfound determination that he’s never felt before he came to the Underground. It was a mistake to come here, but Xeno is actually very happy that this "mistake" happened. Sure, not everything that happened was good... but there was enough positives to overtake the negatives, which is a different mindset that Xeno usually has a hard time having without Wolfie to remind him of it. Xeno smiles and approaches the CORE, feeling the bright red and white lights wash over him and fill him with sincere hopefulness. "Stay determined..."

  
The elevator at the entrance doesn’t seem to be working, so Xeno starts searching for a different way up through the CORE. He walks through the corridors with blue walls and red lights, the monsters of the area excitedly rushing over to see him. Xeno befriends each and every one with confidence and courage. He almost feels like Wolfie at the moment... and that thought itself helps cement his resolve to escape this world without any more unnecessary negativity.

  
Soon, he arrives at a large doorway with a glowing symbol that looks kind of like an angel bird or something. He looks at the SAVE point beside him and taps it to save. Daydreams of all your new friends rush through your mind, giving you hope and optimism. These hopes and dreams fill you with sincerity and determination. Xeno smiles, feeling the truth in that statement, then steps into the dimly-lit room, fully prepared for whatever is to come.

  
The room is dark, with the only lights being from the doorways in front and behind him, as well as neon blue lights attached to the edge of the pathway and platform in front of him. Xeno steps onto the platform, smiling as he's met with the sight of a familiar robot, the metal of his body reflecting the neon lights around them.

  
"OH, THERE YOU ARE, DARLING," he says in his typical appealing voice. "YOU'VE KEPT ME WAITING FOR FAR TOO LONG." Xeno shrugs, a wolfish smirk on his face. "Hey, the elevator wasn’t working. That ain’t my fault." Mettaton crosses his arms. "UGH, HOW RUDE OF SOMEONE! THEY DELAYED YOUR ARRIVAL TO THE SHOW! OH WELL. YOU'RE HERE NOW, SO WE CAN FINALLY BEGIN!"

  
Mettaton raises his arm and the platform shakes for a moment, a loud rumble sounding for a moment. Then, the platform suddenly raises up higher, making Xeno stumble a little bit, but he manages to keep his balance enough to stay standing. He looks at Mettaton. "So... what’s THIS show about?" Mettaton chuckles and tosses his microphone away as bright pink lights on the platform floor light up like a dance floor.

  
"OH DARLING, I'VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT YOU SO MUCH RECENTLY," Mettaton begins, rolling slowly across the platform with a surprising amount of sass. "MY DEAR DR. ALPHYS TOLD YOU THAT I WANTED TO KILL YOU, IS THAT RIGHT? WELL... THAT'S ACTUALLY NOT TRUE AT ALL. SHE LIED TO YOU, DARLING. SHE JUST WANTED TO PLAY THE HERO, YOU SEE. BUT I GET THE FEELING YOU CAUGHT ON TO THAT, DIDN'T YOU?" Xeno shrugs, crossing his arms.

  
"Well, I had a suspicion that you didn’t really want me dead," he says. "But Alphys lying to me? I... didn’t think of that, actually." Mettaton stops moving across the platform and looks straight at Xeno. "OH, I SEE. BUT THAT DOESN'T MATTER NOW, DOES IT? YOU'RE HERE WITH ME... AND I'D LIKE TO SHOW YOU SOMETHING... I THINK YOU'LL FIND... VERY... APPEALING~...”

  
Xeno shudders at this, but definitely not out of fear. "Oh god..." he breathes out, a blush starting to form on his face. "Yeah, I’m sure it’ll be... mmh, interesting... ehehe..." Whew, it’s hot in here! He thinks as he twirls a piece of hair around his finger again.

  
Mettaton turns around, revealing the obvious switch on his backside. "NOW, DARLING... WOULD YOU BE SO KIND AS TO GIVE ME A LITTLE... PAT ON THE BACK?” Xeno takes a breath to help him keep his cool and he walks over to Mettaton, trying not to smirk like an idiot but failing miserably. "D-don’t miiiiind if I dooo~!”

  
He flips the switch with enthusiasm and steps back at bit, unsure of exactly what’s about to happen. Mettaton turns slightly, looking at Xeno. "WHY, THANK YOU, DARLING~... I'VE BEEN WANTING YOU TO SEE THIS FOR SO LONG..." The lights on his body flash between red and yellow sporadically, then all the lights in the room go out instantaneously with a dramatic boom noise. Xeno flinches at this, almost afraid but definitely more excited. "Oh god what is this...?"

  
Smoke starts to fill the area in front of Xeno as a couple spotlights burst on, shining down into the clouds. "OH YES~!” Xeno tenses up at this, accidentally pulling on his hair but is a bit too distracting to care. "Oh... m-my... god..." his voice shakily forces out.

  
A silhouette begins to appear in the fog, having the form of a humanoid creature strutting towards Xeno, his one hand on his hip as it swings side to side teasingly with each step. Xeno’s eyes widen in shock at this, somehow NOT expecting whatever THIS is but starting to figure out what just happened. He opens his mouth, but is unable to form words in his awestruck and kind-of-turned-on-by-this-sexy-robot state.

  
The silhouette's leg pokes out of the fog teasingly, but the rest of his body remains shrouded in mist. He hears Mettaton chuckle seductively, making Xeno have to cover his mouth to hold back a scream. _Oh my GOD!!! STOP YOU'RE LITERALLY KILLING ME!!!_

  
"I’ve been waiting for just the right time to share this body with the world," Mettaton speaks in a low and sensual voice. "And you... I just KNEW that you would absolutely ADORE this new form. So, I decided that it’s debut would be with you, darling~!" The silhouette's hand that was hanging by his side moves up to run through his hair, and Xeno could swear he heard Mettaton let out a quiet moan and he can’t help but let out a silenced screech at it. OH MY GODMETTATONDONTTEASEMELIKETHIS!! A part of him wanted to turn away because this is just a BIT much for him to handle, but if he does that then he doesn’t get to witness this big reveal and he'd probably hate himself for the rest of eternity if he DIDN'T take the opportunity to see this firsthand. Mettaton holds his hand by his chin and says "Now, since I was so nice and chose you to be the co-star of the season finale, you'll stick around and play for a little bit, won’t you?"

  
"YES I WILL," Xeno says immediately, just a little louder than he was intending to. Mettaton laughs at this, sending another shudder down Xeno's spine.

  
"Well then, darling..." the robot says doing a little preparation pose in anticipation of his reveal. "Feast your eyes on this display of beauty, glamour..." He stops down on the ground, sending out a loud reverberating ring of metal against metal as the stage lights up pink once again and the fog dissipates, revealing the gorgeous new body of Mettaton EX as he poses dramatically with the pink and white lights shimmering against his metallic form. "And pure FABULOUS!!”

  
Finally, upon seeing the new form of Mettaton, Xeno lets out a loud scream. "AAAAAHHHH METTATON YOU'RE ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!!” Mettaton laughs erotically, licking his lips as he looks at what is probably his #1 fan. "Oh, darling, you’re so sweet!" He snaps his fingers in a showy way and music begins to play in the background. "Now, let’s dance, gorgeous~!”

  
_I LOVE THIS MUSIC TOO HOLY SHIT METTATON IS THE BEST!!!_ Xeno squeals in his mind, hiding his red face in his hands. He takes a long, dramatic deep breath to try and regain just a tiny bit of his cool, then stares up at the beautiful robot in awe, still smiling like an idiot but no longer really caring. “Oh YES, let’s dance!”

  
The world suddenly flashes into black and white, which half surprises Xeno but… no, actually he’s used to this by now. And this is Mettaton, so he’s actually just completely PUMPED for this battle. He glances down, seeing that his SOUL is encased in a translucent yellow metal, making his SOUL look almost pixilated and point out in front of him, a small opening in the tip so it can shoot little bullets. But he certainly doesn’t want to hurt Mettaton, so he isn’t going to use it on him, of course. He KNOWS that he can get out of THIS fight without hurting his favorite star.

  
Mettaton flips his hair and takes a step forward. “Come on, darling! Show me what you can do!” He jumps at Xeno, aiming a kick towards him. Xeno steps out of the way and Mettaton lands on the ground with a clang, then immediately swings his other leg around at Xeno, who ducks underneath it. Mettaton smiles and throws a couple more kicks at Xeno, who manages to jump and twirl out of the way of them all. Xeno jumps back and gives the robot a wink as he crosses his arms. “Nice try, Metta. But as beautiful as those legs are, they can’t touch my fabulousness.” Mettaton chuckles. “Oh my, you seem quite full of yourself now, darling. I’d love to see exactly how justified that confidence is.”

  
He poses, one leg in front of the other and one hand on his hip, and a few mini Mettatons pop up from the floor. He blows Xeno a kiss and the mini Mettatons follow suit, actually sending little heart-shaped bullets at Xeno. He bounces into the air, letting the bullets fly past him. He reaches to his back and pulls off his one wing(he lost the other one in Waterfall, if you recall). His wing is broken anyway, and it doesn’t make him look fabulous having only one wing. “I’ll have to get new ones anyway” he says as he tosses it off stage. He stretches his body out, then poses proudly, flipping his hair. “Much better, right?”  
“Oh, most DEFINITELY,” Mettaton says, crossing his arms and smirking. “That wing was COMPLETELY getting in your way.” He raises his arm and a few blocks and bombs fall from the ceiling. Xeno dodges the ones he can and aims his SOUL upwards to shoot and destroy the ones he can’t slide out of the way of.

  
Mettaton then jumps close to Xeno, grabbing his hands and making him jump and let out a little squeak. “Come on, darling~!” The robot says in an almost begging tone as he pulls Xeno close to his body, making him suck in a breath and blush shyly. “Dance with me.”

  
He leads Xeno through some dance moves that he very clearly must have planned out in advance. Xeno isn’t exactly the greatest dancer there is, but he does kind of know what he’s doing. With Mettaton’s guidance, he manages to step along fine with minimal slip ups. Then, the robot releases his grip on Xeno’s hands and jumps back to do a dramatic pose, Xeno immediately doing the same.

  
Suddenly, Xeno hears cheering and claps from somewhere. He turns around to see that they suddenly have an audience watching them. He actually recognizes most of the monsters as ones from the CORE and some of the ones from Hotland. A bunch of them wave at Xeno when he turns and sees them, calling out to him. “Xeno! It’s me, Xeno! Remember me?!” They call out. “You look fabulous!” Calls some others. “XENIE, YOU ADORABLE CINNAMON BUN, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH I WANNA CUDDLE WITH YOU AND SQUEEZE ALL THE BAD THINGS FROM YOUR POOR LITTLE SUGAR COOKIE MIND!!” Squeals one in particular. Apparently, Xeno has at least one REALLY dedicated fan. He almost starts to tear up in happiness at this, but blinks that away and just laughs joyfully. “Ahahaha! Wow! I… I hadn’t realized until now… just how much I seem to mean to you all! Thank you… thank you guys so so much!” They all cheer again as more monsters start to run into the room to watch the show. Xeno chuckles, then adds “oh, and whoever said they wanted to cuddle with me, I’ll GLADLY cuddle with you once the show’s over. Meet me outside later and we can cuddle.” He winks at his #1 fan, who looks incredibly happy like her senpai just noticed her, then Xeno twirls back around to face Mettaton, who is standing and waiting patiently. Once he sees that Xeno is done raising the spirits of the crowd, he smirks.

  
“Oh, you truly ARE a star, darling!” He says, taking a step forward sassily. “It looks like we’ve brought so much light and life to the Underground today!” He struts forward and grabs a microphone, standing on the edge of the stage and speaking out to the crowd. “Welcome, beauties!” He calls out. “How are you all enjoying today’s special and fabulous season finale?” The crowd screams and cheers in happiness and Mettaton laughs. “WONDERFUL!! This is by far the greatest crowd I think I’ve ever seen! I simply adore each and every one of you!” He turns to Xeno. “Don’t you, darling?” Xeno quickly grabs Mettaton’s hand with the microphone and speaks into it. “I LOVE LITERALLY EVERYONE IN THE UNDERGROUND SO MUCH YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW!! YOU’RE ALL ACTUALLY THE BEST PEOPLE EVER!!”

  
The crowd cheers and screams out for both Mettaton and Xeno, and the two of them on stage turn to one another for a moment, smiling big, pleasantly-surprised smiles with their eyes shimmering with happiness. They turn back to the crowd, stars twinkling in Xeno’s eyes, and Mettaton poses as he speaks into his microphone.

  
“I couldn’t have said it better myself, beauties!” He says, a hint of a laugh in his voice. “Xeno here truly has a way with words sometimes, doesn’t he?” He looks over at a camera and adds “and of course I hope our dearest viewers at home are enjoying the show as well. We certainly couldn’t just leave THEM out, could we?”

  
Xeno then notices Alphys rush into the room and stand at the entrance, a look of horror and shock on her face. She bites her nails when she sees Xeno standing up on stage with Mettaton. He turns to Mettaton and whispers “uh, Alphys is here, Metta…” Mettaton quickly turns to where Xeno is looking and makes eye contact with Alphys, who jumps in shock and looks away, hiding her face. Mettaton shrugs, taking Xeno’s hand. “Well then, darlings, let’s keep this show on the right track! Our dearest friend Xeno and I will make this an unforgettable experience for you all!”

  
Mettaton pulls Xeno away from the edge of the stage and the world suddenly bursts back into color, finally leaving the pointless monochrome battle scene and returning the beautiful white and pink lights to the picture. The sexy robot guides Xeno through a dance again, which Xeno happily follows through with. He starts to really get the hang of it after just a little bit, matching every one of Mettaton’s steps and movements. Xeno does a twirl, then Mettaton dips him down a bit, Xeno pointing one of his legs out to show them off; he knows Mettaton loves his own legs, so Xeno figures why not show off his too?

  
Mettaton chuckles as he pulls Xeno back up, bringing their faces close together. “Oh, you’re really getting into this, aren’t you darling~?” Xeno winks at him, playfully flicking at the tip of Mettaton’s hair. “Certainly you didn’t expect me to NOT get into this, right Metta?” They dance a few more steps to the beat, then Xeno slides to the ground, doing a pose on one knee and running his fingers through his hair as he pulls Mettaton’s face down close to his. “Y’know, Mettaton,” Xeno says, sliding his hand onto Mettaton’s metal cheek and licking his lips. “The audience always loves a bit of romance…” Mettaton chuckles as he grabs some of Xeno’s hair. “Oh my, Xeno~… You’re such a flirt, aren’t you~?” Xeno shrugs and winks. “Oh, you KNOW it, sexy…”

  
Xeno pulls Mettaton down into a kiss, making the whole crowd flip out in excitement. Alphys’ whole face turns into a scaly tomato and she covers her mouth to hold back a scream. “O-oh god th-this is anime n-nosebleed material h-here…”  
Once that kiss ends, Mettaton lifts Xeno up and holds him so he’s close to his face and Xeno wraps his legs around Mettaton’s torso, the two of them staring into each other’s eyes with suggestive and kind of lewd expressions. “You’re quite a good kisser, darling~,” Mettaton says. Xeno shrugs. “Well, I’ve had practice… and you’re very fun to show off my skills with.” They kiss again, the audience flipping out and enjoying the slightly erotic show very much. But don’t worry; it’s still (probably) PG-13. Alphys shudders, questioning whether or not she actually WANTS to put a stop to this. “Th-this is r-really g-good fanfiction m-material… I-I-I ship it…”

  
Finally, the two trash bags of kinky-ass sin(aka Xeno and Mettaton) break their kiss and Mettaton places Xeno back on the ground. They walk over to the edge of the stage and Mettaton grabs his microphone again. “Oh, I do apologize, my dearest audience,” he says in a kind of teasing tone. “We may have gotten a bit... carried away there. But I hope you’ve enjoyed this stunning and shocking finale for this season of MTT TV! Stay tuned for the next season, coming soon! See you later, darlings~!”

  
The spotlight shines on Xeno, who does a little twirl and then gives a flirty little wink at the audience. “I love you guys~!” The spotlight returns to Mettaton, who bows, and then the room goes dark and the sound of applause and cheers fills the room; it’s probably filling the entirety of the Underground, actually. Somewhere in Snowdin, Papyrus and Sans are probably watching the TV and cheering Xeno on. Xeno wonders if the king, Asgore, happened to be watching too…

  
Well, whatever. It doesn’t really matter to Xeno WHO was watching. He enjoyed himself so much right there! Arguably the best time he’s had in the Underground was this moment with Mettaton. He follows the robot off stage and into the hallway behind them. Xeno looks up at Mettaton, blushing slightly. “So… did I do a good job?” Mettaton looks at him, then laughs heartily.

  
“Of course you did, darling!” He exclaims. “I can’t believe you even need me to tell you that! It should have been obvious that you’re a beautiful and wonderful person, and a truly radiant and shining star!” Xeno glances away shyly, twirling his hair around his finger. “Aww, thanks, Metta… I had a great time… y’know, dancing and stuff with you there. Honestly, every time I saw you while I was going through Hotland I got so excited! It sounds really… cliché I guess to say ‘I’m totally your number one fan’ so instead I guess I’ll just say ‘I love you so much I want to collect ALL of your merchandise’ and stuff.”

  
Mettaton laughs again and Xeno jumps up to hug Mettaton, who hugs him back and holds him up, keeping him from falling right back to the ground(Mettaton is quite a bit taller than Xeno). Xeno, once again, can’t help but smile like an idiot as he cuddles up to the robot star. “I love this universe!” He says. “It has cuddly skeletons AND cuddly robots! And the robot I know is ABSOLUTELY gorgeous!”

  
“Oh, Xeno,” Mettaton says with a chuckle. “You truly are adorable.”

  
Alphys then walks in, wringing her hands in nervousness again. “U-um… Xeno? M-Mettaton?” She stutters, catching the attention of the two stars of the Underground. “Oh, hi Alphys,” Xeno says, still clinging to Mettaton. “Uh… how’d ya… like the show…?”

  
…Silence.

  
“…I thought we did good,” Xeno says, quieter and more awkward this time. Oh god THIS is familiar… he thinks. He kind of expects Alphys to just stand there in awkward silence forever, but she actually looks up at Xeno and speaks. “Y-you did r-r-really well… g-good, and… and stuff. Ehehe…” She trails off, trying to think of something else to say. Finally, Xeno rolls his eyes and says “I forgive you, Alphys.”

  
Alphys jumps in shock at this, her face turning red. “Wh-whaaat…?! Wh-what are y-y-you talking about?!” Xeno smiles down at her. “I heard you were trying to get Mettaton to try and pretend kill me, so you could swoop in and save me. You probably think I’d hate you for that, don’t you? I don’t. I still love you a lot. I mean, shit; wouldn’t anyone want to try and insert themselves into a story so they could be someone’s hero? I know I’D probably try and do something to play a part in an awesome hero’s story, not that I’m really an ‘awesome hero’ or anything. Honestly, I’m kinda the opposite of that… but I’ve had a pretty awesome adventure, so for whatever THAT’S worth… in a way I’m the protagonist of the video game, so to speak. Or something…” He shrugs. “Whatever; I’m not great at this. I’m probably just sounding stupid now. Point is I understand what you were trying to do and I totally don’t mind at all. You’re still just as cool as ever in my book.” He gives Alphys a thumbs up and a big smile, making Alphys turn away and hide her face in embarrassment.

  
“Ooh, you’re… y-you’re too n-n-nice to me, X-Xeno!” She squeals. “I-I-I l-love you t-t-too…” She glances at Xeno for a moment, then paces back and forth in the doorway for a bit. “I… I-I gotta g-go now, so, uh… p-please come visit me… uh, y’know wh-when you… come back t-to the Underground to… s-see the friends you ma-made here, o-okay?” Xeno chuckles at Alphys’ embarrassment and nods. “Of course! Why would I NOT come see you? Keep up the awesome science-y stuff you do! And sorry I stole your dress.” Alphys stops pacing and smiles at Xeno with a red face. “Th-thanks… and it… it’s fine… about the dress. I, uh, don’t wear them much anyway…”

  
There was a moment of silence… and then it turned into an awkwardly long silence. Alphys eventually got the idea and tried to figure out a good way to say goodbye, and ends up just squeaking out “I’m bad at this see you later bye!” And then she runs away. Xeno laughs. “She’s pretty funny sometimes. Can’t wait to see how funny it’ll be when I come to visit.”

 

**|\vvv/|**

 

It’s dusk when Ravina finally wakes up with a groan, slowly pushing himself to sit up as his back cracks a bit. “Grr… shit…” He stretches his body out a bit, hearing a couple more cracks, then rises to his feet and takes a deep breath. He still kind of feels like there’s something in his throat and chest, so he pounds his chest a couple times and tries to cough out any remaining shade. A few bits come out and then he figures that he’s fine. There’s probably nothing left in him now, and if there is it shouldn’t cause any problems. Probably.

  
Ravina then takes a quick look around, seeing that Gaster is not around. “Where’d he go?” He asks himself, taking a few steps away from the spot he woke up on. He glances down at the bits of shade that he coughed up, seeing that they’re slowly inching their way somewhere. Assuming that means Gaster went that direction, Ravina picks up the gooey and slimy shadows and heads off in that direction.

  
After climbing up the mountain a little bit, Ravina finds Gaster standing atop a little rock and staring out over the world. Ravina places the pieces of shade down beside Gaster and lets them re-fuse with his body, then the wolf flies up onto the rock and stands behind him to look out too.

  
The sun’s almost fully set beyond the horizon, but it’s still barely peeking out and sending out vibrant golden rays of light across the world. They are on a mountain in the middle of a biome of hills and forests, the golden dusk light rays drenching the treetops with a rich and appealing hue. The sky has a gradient of gold to blood red to royal purple to the beautiful darkness of night, with the pinpricks of white stars twinkling in the sky above. Somewhere close to the horizon, way off in the distance, there appears to be the shimmering lights and figures of manmade structures; a village? A small town? A whole city? It’s too far away to tell how big the civilization is.

  
The wind on the mountain blows calmly, then becomes a bit more fierce for a time, the returns to calm at random intervals. Gaster’s body wavers in the wind, but doesn’t drip or fall apart. The darkness of his body still doesn’t reflect any kind of light, as if he truly is a Void that absorbs all that touches it including light, but the white of his face and hands have allowed the golden sun rays to sit against him, gently embracing every crack and curve of his body that isn’t shrouded in shade. His white eye lights are incredibly small; this is probably the smallest they could go without being gone entirely. It looks as if he’s about to cry, but he doesn’t have any tears in his body to let out. Ravina stares into the distance with him for a while, then after the last piece of the sun’s face falls down below the horizon, leaving only the twilight remnants of its reddish-yellow glow to stain the sky, Gaster lowers his head slightly, trying to form words.

  
“F-ffffee... freee... da-doooom... freeeee... dom... f-freedom!!” He cries out, his face in his hands. Ravina steps closer to him, giving him a little pat on the back. “Hey, uh… you okay?” He pauses, then continues. “Oh, you’ve been in the Void for so long you probably haven’t seen a sunset in forever. Literally. It must feel… pretty amazing, huh?” Gaster lowers his hands slightly and nods, his body too tired to try and form any more words now.

  
Suddenly, Gaster collapses on the ground, making Ravina jump in shock and kneel down beside him. “Woah, Doc! You okay?!” Gaster smiles and gives the wolf a thumbs up. Ravina isn’t completely sure if that’s supposed to be a letter in Wingdings or just a thumbs up. Well, Gaster usually uses his right hand to make those hand-shaped Wingdings, and since he just gave a thumbs up with his left hand, Ravina assumes that was just an “I’m okay” thumbs up. Wolf sighs in relief and sits down on the ground. “Just tired then?” He asks, not really expecting a response. “Makes sense I guess. Besides, you’re free now. That’s gotta be… well, it’s gotta be SOMETHING, I guess.” Gaster glances away for a moment, and Ravina nods slightly. “Well… yeah, I guess you’re only partially free, all things considered. There’s still a lot of you out there in the Void, huh? But… you ARE here now, at least in part. That’s an impressive feat itself, y’know? Enjoy this, Doc. Who knows what’s gonna happen to a Void creature that isn’t in the Void…”

  
After sitting there for a long time while the red and gold sun stains slowly dripped out of the night sky’s curtain, Ravina stands up to take a quick glance around, then back down at Gaster. “Are you going to be okay out here? I find it hard to believe that there’s not dangers out here. Y’know, things that could break you apart again. Is there somewhere in particular you want me to take you?”

  
Gaster shakes his head no, slowly tracing symbols on the rock with his shadows just to enjoy the way it feels to be a part of nature again. To be a part of the world itself again. The pictures he’s tracing appear to be of faces; two faces in particular. Ravina doesn’t recognize either of them. They almost look like smiling skulls or something. Gaster then writes down a few symbols in the rock. Ravina isn’t going to ask him about the drawing; might be kinda personal and it doesn’t really matter now. Gaster probably has his own things he wants to do now that he’s returned to his home world, so Ravina figures he shouldn’t interrupt.

  
“So, Doc,” Wolf says, taking a few steps off the rock. “I guess… if you don’t feel like you need my help anymore, I’ll be going. I have a friend I gotta find.” Gaster sits up and looks at Ravina, smiling with joy and he forces out some shaky words: “thaaan… ta… thank… ya… yeeea… you…” Ravina smiles back and nods, giving him a little wave. “See ya later. If we ever cross paths again, that is.”

  
Ravina turns away from the shade creature and walks off through the tree-covered mountain. He figures that while he’s here, he could take just a quick look around. This IS an undiscovered universe, after all. He might as well make a few observations and write up a little couple page report on this universe while he’s here. “It’s called the Undertale Universe, I’m pretty sure,” he says as he wanders through the forest. “Power level… seven, I believe. My universe’s power level is eight point six, so most likely only the strongest creatures here could stand up to me. Xeno’s home universe is a seven point five, so… he probably could one-shot kill some things that live here if he tried hard enough. But he wouldn’t. He’s too nice to kill anyone, even if they’re trying to kill him.”

  
Suddenly, he comes across something kind of odd. He kneels down on one knee and runs his finger against the dust on the ground beside a giant hole on the ground. The dust shiners red, blue and purple and gives off a powerful aura. “Stardust,” Ravina says, picking up a little bit of it and rubbing it between his index finger and thumb. “Yeah, that’s definitely stardust. How did stardust get HERE? Stardust forms in the stars, obviously. This isn’t where it would naturally spawn.” He stands up again and walks over to the hole, looking down into it.

  
At the bottom, he sees a couple pieces of broken metal… it looks like pieces of Xeno’s wings. Ravina shudders. “This could just be a coincidence and Xeno isn’t actually here… or it’s a miracle and Xeno IS actually here.” He decides that it’s worth the risk and is about to jump into the hole when he notices a magic barrier around it. He pokes at it with his foot, feeling the Saikik energy drain from his foot when it enters. He frowns and pulls out his foot. “Okay, so I’m not gonna be able to use Saikik in there. That would explain why Xeno didn’t come back if he can’t use Saikik and can’t fly out.

  
Ravina reaches into the red X symbols on his shoulders and pulls out two long strings of Dark Saikik energy, then puts the ends of them together to form his weapon, Shadowspear. The spear is made of a shiny black obsidian, a purple Saikik glow emitting from it that protects it from being broken or damaged. It has quite an intricate design of points on each end of it and when Ravina holds it in his hand the area around where it is touched turns purple. “Better summon Shadowspear now while I can so I have a good weapon when I need it.”

  
With a deep breath, Ravina jumps down into the hole, landing on the ground with a a quiet thud. He stands up again and looks up at the barrier above him. “Wonder if I could just fly out if I need to… maybe. Dunno. Whatever; I’m here now. Let’s see how this plays out.” He flips his spear into his left hand and walks off into the Underground.

  
As he walks through a purple doorway, he sees a golden flower pop out of the ground. It smiles up at him innocently. “Oh, howdy!” He says. “I’m Flowey! Flowey the flower! Golly, I can’t believe there’s already someone new here! It’s only been a few days since the last one fell down!”

  
And that’s all the confirmation Ravina needs. He stares down at the flower. “Then he IS here… tell me. Where is he? Is he safe?” Flowey chuckles, deciding not to waste his time with his innocent charade and twists his face into his demonic grin. “As if I’d tell you! You’re that Wolfie he keeps rambling on about, aren’t you? Oh, if you could just hear his little cries!” He transforms his face into something resembling Xeno’s. ‘Oh, Wolfie!’ He cries. ‘Come save me! I’m so scared here! Oh, but I shouldn’t worry too much! I know Wolfie will come for me! Wolfie will come and save me soon!’” Flowey’s face returns to his evil one and he laughs insanely. “What a joke! You look all tough and threatening but I bet you’re just as weak as he is!” Ravina growls and raises his spear.

  
“Tell me where he is, you fucking asshole flower!” He spits angrily. “I’ll cut you right out of the ground!” Flowey actually shrinks down slightly, but chuckles to try and mask his fear. “I bet you wish you could! But you see, in this world it’s KILL or BE KILLED! And I know I can’t kill you yet… but in just a little bit, I’ll become a GOD, and then there’ll be NOTHING you can do to stop me! I’ll kill your pathetic little friend and then come back for you! I think that’s a wonderful idea!” He laughs again, then disappears into the ground before Ravina’s sudden attack can reach his stem.

  
After the flower vanishes, Ravina relaxes again and takes a breath, glancing around the area. “Well… this is going to be a long night.”

 

**~*^^*~**

 

After talking to his new fans that were in the audience (and cuddling with that one who absolutely adores him), Xeno approaches the elevator that will take him to New Home. He had also stopped to eat some dinner with Mettaton and Alphys back at the MTT Resort, so he feels all set to head out. It’s late now, probably just about dusk. There sun’s still probably up just a little bit, but it’s gotta be setting now. Despite how late it is, Xeno figures that it’s about time he left. The sooner he leaves… the sooner he can come back to visit! He takes a deep breath as he steps into the elevator, then clicks the button to take him up to New Home.

  
“Okay… this is it,” he says to himself as the elevator rises. “I’m gonna meet the king. I’m… I’m gonna meet Asgore. I… I don’t know what I’m expecting here. Some people say he’s really nice, but if he wants to kill me… I… I don’t know. I’m… kinda expecting him to be mean to me, but… I really don’t know what I’m thinking…” The elevator dings as it reaches its final destination and Xeno steps out into the black, white and grey area that is New Home.

  
The moment he sees how monochromatic the area is, Xeno’s eyes go wide. “I… I wasn’t expecting this.” He walks down a hallway and exits out into the area, standing on a long raised walkway looking over a large colorless city. “What… What IS this? There’s no… no color at all… it’s so… lifeless, almost.”

  
Suddenly, he feels someone tap his shoulder. He gasps and turns to see who it is, kind of expecting it to be Asgore. But when he turns to see who it could be, there’s nobody there. He looks around a bit more, but there’s definitely nobody else here. Xeno shudders, then starts walking down the pathway, glancing off the edge once in a while to see if he can see any life down there. He calls down to see if anyone responds…

  
But nobody came.

  
A slight breeze drifts through the area and Xeno pushes himself onwards, choosing not to acknowledge the silence anymore as he walks towards a building that looks oddly familiar. He steps inside the building and gasps, covering his mouth in shock.  
“Oh, hello there, my child!” Toriel says, turning around to greet him. She smiles down at him kindly. “It’s been a while since we’ve talked, hasn’t it? You fell down here five nights ago… I can still remember what I felt like when I saw that little flower tormenting you… I just had to come over and help you out.”

  
Xeno knows he’s probably just imagining this, but he can’t help but jump at the chance to give Toriel a big hug when she opens her arms invitingly. He nuzzles his face into her dress and feels tears starting to well up in his eyes… but he doesn’t cry. He just looks up at Toriel, love sparkling in his eyes and not tears. “Mama… thank you… and I’m sorry… I’m sorry I did that to you…” Toriel closes her eyes and gently pets Xeno’s head.

  
“My child, it doesn’t matter now,” she says. “Everyone makes mistakes sometimes, and sometimes they are irreversible. Sometimes they can cause scars to form on people, whether that be others or the one who made the mistake. Those scars may never fade, no matter what they do to fix it. What matters is that you take the mistakes you made and try to find a way to cope with them. You try and turn the trauma into something good that brings you closer to being the person you truly wish to be. You hurt me then, that is true. But I never truly left you.” She pulls Xeno back a bit and places her hand over his chest. “My LOVE is with you still. In your SOUL, it’s there… but you can take that LOVE and bring it into your heart instead, filling you with sincerity and… not the malicious kind of LOVE. I believe in you, my child. You only wanted to leave, and I was trying to keep you there against your will… I was in the wrong. So what if you made a mistake? I forgive you, and all your friends do too.”

  
Suddenly, Toriel’s body vanishes and her SOUL appears, which glows white and starts to fly away. It disappears down the stairs and into the basement hallway. Xeno quickly runs after her, making his way through the underground hallway. Eventually he emerges from the hallway and ends up in a colorless version of the place where he had his play fight with Papyrus. In front of him, he sees Toriel’s SOUL pass by Papyrus, who smiles and waves excitedly when he sees Xeno. “XENO!” He calls. “YOU’RE BACK TO SEE ME! WOWIE, YOU LOOK REALLY COOL! NOT THAT YOU DIDN’T LOOK COOL BEFORE, BUT YOU LOOK EVEN MORE SO NOW. YOU ALMOST RIVAL ME IN COOLNESS! NYEH HEH HEH!”

  
Now Xeno is COMPLETELY positive that this is all just some kind of dream he’s having, but he doesn’t even care. He runs up to Papyrus and jumps at him, who catches him and twirls him around a bit, both of them laughing happily and then Papyrus pulls Xeno into a hug, not a care in the world. “Papy!” Xeno says as he cuddles with his adorable skeleton friend. “I miss you! I just… I can’t wait to see you again!” Papyrus blushes a bit as he looks down at Xeno in his arms.

  
“OH WOWIE… I MISS YOU YOO, XENO… A LOT, ACTUALLY. WHILE I’M TRAINING TO BE THE GREATEST ROYAL GUARDSMAN THAT THE UNDERGROUND WILL EVER SEE, I JUST THINK ABOUT HOW I NEED TO MAKE SURE THE UNDERGROUND IS SAFE FOR WHEN YOU COME BACK TO SEE ME AGAIN! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, MUST ENSURE THE SAFETY OF MY GREATEST FRIEND OF ALL! NYEH HEH HEH HEH!” He pauses, then says “WELL, ACTUALLY… YOU DON’T SEEM LIKE YOU NEED MY AMAZING PROTECTION AT ALL ANYMORE. YOU LOOK LIKE YOU CAN TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF NOW…” He places Xeno back onto the ground and gives him a slightly sad smile. “THEN… I GUESS I SHOULDN’T KEEP YOU HERE TOO LONG. I DON’T NEED TO WORRY ANYMORE BECAUSE I KNOW YOU’LL COME BACK TO SEE ME SOON. BY THE TIME YOU RETURN, I, YOUR GREAT FRIEND PAPYRUS, WILL HAVE STARTED A XENO FAN CLUB HERE IN THE UNDERGROUND! AND WHEN YOU RETURN, WE’LL ALL GET TOGETHER AND PLAY… I DON’T KNOW YET. BUT WE’LL PLAY SOMETHING!”

  
Xeno smiles up at Papyrus, holding his hands over his heart. “Oh, Papy…” he says. “I love you so much, I swear… you’re the best! Even if this is all just a dream, I know that’s something you’d say… and I promise I’ll be back soon. I won’t stay away for too long.” He gestures for Papyrus to come closer so he does, leaning down to let Xeno give the skeleton a little kiss on the forehead. Xeno then steps away a bit, giving Papyrus a big grin and waving to him. “See you soon, Papy! I love you!” Papyrus happily waves back as he watches Xeno move on, following Toriel’s SOUL through New Home. “B-BYE, XENO! I LOVE YOU TOO! AND… AND I MISS YOU!”

  
Not long after leaving Papyrus, Xeno finds himself standing outside of Undyne’s crag, which is as colorless as the rest of New Home. He looks up and sees her sitting atop it, in her full armor and facing away from him, holding her spear in her lap. Xeno calls up to her and she turns her head slightly to see him. “…Half-human.” She pulls off her helmet and tosses it away, then twirls around to look down at Xeno, an unreadable expression on her face. “What took you so long? Alphys’ robot held you up?” She sneers, glaring down at him. “You let HIM keep you back? But you run right through me? Oh, whatever. You deserved to enjoy that time anyway I guess.” She stands up proudly, unable to stop a smirk from sneaking onto her face. “And look at this. You’re here in New Home finally. If you managed to beat ME, you deserve to be standing here now. You DESERVE to be free. You deserve to get back to your old home safe and sound. And if ANYONE EVER tries to put you down in any way, I want you to give them a heroic punch in the face and say it’s from Undyne! Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, has the right to put you down now! I don’t wanna hear that you died or let something drag you down after you defeated me! If even I couldn’t kill you, then I don’t want to let ANYTHING kill you!” She roars to psyche herself up, making Xeno excited as well. Undyne smashes her spear into the rock and makes a fist as she looks down at Xeno. “NOW WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! HURRY UP AND SHOW ASGORE THE DETERMINATION YOU SHOWED ME!! KICK HIS ASS ALL THE WAY TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE UNIVERSE IF YOU HAVE TO!! IF HE THINKS HE CAN DEFEAT YOU, TELL HIM THAT IF YOU CAN BEAT UNDYNE, THEN YOU CAN DEFINITELY BEAT HIS BIG FLUFFY ASS ANY DAY!! I WANT YOU TO WIN AND SHOW THE WHOLE UNDERGROUND HOW DETERMINED YOU REALLY ARE!! NOW GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!! WHY ARE YOU STILL STANDING THERE LIKE A FUCKING IDIOT?! GO!!! NGAAAAAHHH!!”

  
Xeno screams back in excitement and determination, then runs through the cave in the crag, following Toriel’s SOUL still. He can’t help but laugh at that last interaction; not that it was funny, per say, but just… he wouldn’t have expected even Undyne to come cheer him on now. He soon finds himself standing back on stage with Mettaton, Alphys half hiding behind him. “O-oh, h-hey Xeno…” Alphys says as she wrings her hands. “I, um… I r-really appreciate… um… I really appreciate how… h-how nice you are to me… a-a-and, um… y’know, uh…”

  
Mettaton pats her on the back suddenly, making her jump in shock. “Oh, don’t you worry, Alphys dear,” he says in a kind of reassuring tone. “Our friend Xeno here isn’t someone you need to feel shy around. Come on, talk to him!” Alphys blushes slightly, glancing away for a moment and stuttering a couple “um”s and “uh”s, then she looks at Xeno with a shy smile on her face. “I, uh… I know we had a kinda… awkward introduction, but… you still let me be your friend. Even though I’m… really shy and awkward… you still let me stick with you and… pretend to help you. And, well… you didn’t get mad at me when you found out that I… I lied to you… and I feel really bad for lying but… but you still like me… you didn’t hate me for doing something really… kinda mean to you, and… and… and you still think of me as a friend… that, um… that means a lot to me, Xeno… s-so… thank you…”

  
After Alphys finishes her quiet little speech, Mettaton struts over to Xeno and stands in front of him, giving him a loving pat on the head. “And I’m sure you know exactly why I love you, darling. You don’t need a speech from me, do you? But I’ll say this anyway; you’re a true star, Xeno darling. I do hope that when you come back here, you’ll be my co-star again! Truly, that was an absolutely wonderful experience!” He bends down to be at Xeno’s height and gives him a little kiss on the cheek. “I’ll be one of your fans, darling~! I believe I already am!” He laughs and stands back up, stepping out of the way for Xeno to pass by. Even when he’s not on TV, he still looks photogenic, as if he’s posing still. Xeno gives Mettaton a quick hug, then goes over to Alphys and hugs her too, making her let our a flustered little squeak. Xeno then steps away from them, giving them a little wave, and follows Toriel’s SOUL as the scenery fades back to New Home itself. He’s once more running across a light grey raised walkway above the colorless lights of the city below. Somehow, this place doesn’t seem quite as desolate as when he first arrived here. As he approaches the castle, Xeno starts to realize how much he loves this world. This really does feel like his New Home.

  
Suddenly, Toriel’s SOUL stops and waits for Xeno to catch up to it. When he does, it swiftly approaches Xeno and goes into his chest, as if merging with him. He feels Toriel’s LOVE turn into love as her kindness fills his heart. Xeno closes his eyes, clutching at his chest where Toriel embraced him with her SOUL. “I love you too… I love you all… and I’ll miss you while I’m gone. But I’ll see you soon, so don’t worry about it.” He steps into a large hallway filled with golden light reflecting against the columns and clean, glassy floor. He smiles as he walks through it, filled with confidence and optimism as the lights coming from outside the large windows fall across his features. There was only one person who was missing from that dream, however…

  
“so, you’re finally here,” a voice says with a chuckle. The shuffling of his pink slippers are heard as he makes his way out of hiding from behind a pillar and stands before Xeno, his head lowered and his hands in his pockets. Xeno smiles when he sees the familiar skeleton, giving him a little wave. “Hey, Sansy!” He calls out to him. “Man, I thought I wasn’t gonna see you again! I mean, until I come to visit, that is. Thought when you left me at the Resort was the last time I’d see you ‘till I come back.” He then pauses when he realizes how odd it is that Sans is here… is this another dream? “What are you doing here?”  
Sans raises his head slowly and looks Xeno in the eyes. “heh heh… so… you really are determined to do this, huh? well… at this point, i guess i can’t stop you. you’re gonna face asgore real soon, buddy. once you step out of this judgement hall, he’ll be right around the corner, waiting for you… so i… hope you’re ready to kill him, because… you’ll have to if you wanna get home.”

  
Xeno flinches at this, just a bit skeptical. “This… is a dream, right? I’m not… I’m not ACTUALLY talking to you, am I? You didn’t ACTUALLY just tell me to KILL Asgore, right?” Sans chuckles sadly, glancing away. “no… this isn’t a dream. i’m actually here, kid. i did just tell you that you’ll have to kill asgore. see, if you want to pass through the barrier, you’ll need a really powerful soul. and what that really means is you’ll need both a human soul… and a monster one. only asgore can give you the monster soul that you need to be able to escape.” He pauses, trying to judge Xeno’s reaction to this. He seems shocked… but still has a firm resolve… which actually helps lift Sans’s mood about all this.

  
“you seem stronger than before, kid,” Sans continues, just a little happier now. “that’s good. i know you don’t want to kill him. none of us want him to die, but… we all believe in you, kid. if anyone could find a way to get you through the barrier without killing him… heh. well, maybe you could find a way. but i kind of doubt it. i won’t hold it against you if you end up killing him. see… we all know that in the end you’re going to win. i know that probably more than any other monster in the underground. you… deserve to go home. and perhaps someday… the barrier will be destroyed and us monsters can go home too. back to the surface… but for now, we all want you to be free. heh… i bet you anything that asgore himself wants you to be free. because… i’m sure he knows… that there’s always the possibility that you’ll come back someday… and when you do, you just might have found a way to… to break the barrier and set us all free. he wants to bring hope back to the underground, and killing you… might have a kind of… opposite effect than that. but… i doubt he’ll just let you take his soul. so… get ready, kid. the end is right through a couple more doorways. don’t give up now. you’re going to be okay.” He steps aside, then sits down, leaning against one of the columns and slightly concealing himself in shadow. “…it’s a beautiful night out there. wolves are howling, stars are shining… on nights like these, kids like you…” he sighs, shutting his eyes and lowering his head. “…should be able to enjoy it without a care in the world.”

  
Xeno just stares in shock at Sans’s entire speech. He… wasn’t expecting that he’d HAVE to kill someone in order to escape. But… there must be a way to escape without anyone having to die, Xeno thinks as he walks over to Sans and kneels down in front of him. Sans lifts his head a bit to see Xeno, who smiles down at the skeleton and gently holds his face in his palms. “Hey, Sans…” he says, trying to cheer him up. “You look like you need some hope more than I do right now. So… You stay determined too, okay?”

  
Sans lifts his head up a little bit more, no longer smiling like he usually is, but soon it starts to return just a bit. “…heh heh. yeah… i’ll do my best, xe.” Xeno nods slightly and gives Sans a little kiss, then stands up again and takes a couple steps back. “I’ll see you soon, Sans. I love you.” He gives the skeleton a little wink, then turns to head off towards the end. Sans watches Xeno leave, a smile finally actually returning to his face.

  
“…love you too, buddy.”

 

**~*^^*~**

 

The throne room is filled with shimmering golden flowers, the blinding white light from outside peeking in through the open curtains. The windows themselves are open to let the quiet whispers of the breeze outside fill the room. The white rays of light from outside shimmer against the purple cape and the white horns of the monster kneeling before Xeno, facing away from him. A gentle gust of wind blows into the room, swaying the cape of the king for a moment. He slowly rises to his feet and takes a deep breath. “…Is someone there?” He slowly turns around to face Xeno with the sound of his feet brushing against the grass and through the flowers on the ground reminding Xeno that this is real and not just another dream. As he turns around and his face is revealed, both him and Xeno gasp…

  
He looks almost like Toriel.

  
Xeno stares up at the king of the Underground in shock; this is ASGORE, the one who Toriel was so intent on saving Xeno from. Asgore stares back at Xeno, a look of shock and heartache crossing his face. Something about him… just reminds Xeno of Toriel.

  
He is determined to make sure this fight doesn’t end like that one.

  
Asgore’s stomach is doing flips in worry at this moment. He turns away for a moment, considering his options… “I… so badly want to say… ‘would you like a cup of tea’ but…” He turns back to Xeno, a somber little smile on his face. “…You know how it is.” Xeno nods slowly in understanding, and Asgore lets out a little chuckle. “It’s… getting late out now. Most of the monsters here are… probably getting ready for bed. I was just watering these flowers, you see. This little garden here is very special to me. When this is over, you’ll make sure someone comes to take care of it, won’t you?”

  
The room fills with silence save for the wind whispers as Xeno and Asgore stare into each other’s eyes. Xeno frowns and slowly shakes his head. “…You sound like you’ve already lost,” he says incredulously. “We haven’t even begun yet. Don’t talk like that, Asgore.” Asgore turns away, hiding his face slightly in shadows. “…You’re right, I suppose. But… you already know what’s coming, so…” He slowly walks away, the sound of footsteps in grass and his heavy breathing playing as he walks through a doorway behind the red and gold royal throne, his cape’s wavering form swinging behind him as he disappears into the next room.

  
Xeno hesitates to follow immediately; he doesn’t really have a plan here. He’s just… improvising. He’ll have to just push on and fight if he has to… but be merciful when he can. As he walks through the throne room, he catches sight of a second throne covered in a white sheet… it then dawns on him…

  
Toriel was the queen of the Underground, wasn’t she?

  
Xeno shudders as he has a quick passing vision of Toriel sitting nicely on the throne, wearing a beautiful crown of gold and smiling down at a couple children sitting before her. The vision immediately vanishes, but there’s no doubt in Xeno’s mind that Toriel was the queen… He finds himself even more determined to make sure that Asgore doesn’t end up meeting the same fate as Toriel.

  
When Xeno walks through the doorway, he finds himself standing in a dark hallway leading to another doorway. Asgore stands in front of the final doorway and turns to Xeno, a forced smile on his face. “Oh, this is very tense, isn’t it?” He laughs quietly. “I… hope you are ready. I know I am not…” Xeno could swear he saw Asgore shudder as he walks through the final doorway, being consumed by the darkness. Xeno slowly walks down the hallway, memories of the friends he made in the Underground coming back to him… their words of encouragement ringing in his ears, even if the words he just heard were only an illusion…  
“Stay determined,” Xeno says to himself as he pokes the SAVE point just before the final room. **The fate of the Underground rests in your hands. You know that this is the end, and you have a firm resolve to make up for your mistakes. Your sincerity… fills you with determination.** Xeno then turns to the doorway and steps through, ready to face his final challenge on his journey.

  
Xeno emerges in a strange-looking room where the barrier surrounds them. Asgore is facing away from Xeno, staring at the place where the barrier’s magic pools together like a core. He reaches out to touch it for just a moment, then steps back a bit and turns his head slightly to see Xeno. “…you don’t have any unfinished business, then?” He slowly turns around to face Xeno, still smiling like Toriel used to…

  
“…Ready?”

 

 

 

**A strange light fills the room.  
Twilight is shining through the barrier.  
It seems your journey is finally over.  
You’re filled with  
DETERMINATION.**


	7. It’s a Dream Come True! ~ But Nightmares Are Dreams Too

Asgore's head is held low as he holds his bright red trident in his claws. Xeno's heart beats rapidly, yet tries to keep himself calm as he looks up at Asgore, whose eyes are barely visible and shimmering as he raised his head up just slightly. "I'm sorry, Xeno. But there will be no MERCY in this fight. Don't feel the need to think of me as someone to be spared. Set aside your kindness for this one fight... and I will do the same." Xeno's heart sinks a little at that statement, but isn't all that surprised. He got the feeling that this was gonna be a real fight. And if he wants to leave, then... does he really have a choice but to fight?

  
As Asgore stands there before the barrier, the typically-black battleground slowly begins to gain a deep purple hue, beginning to glow and light up the otherwise black and white scene. Small red orbs of light slowly rise from the ground and ascend to the infinite dark abyss of the sky above them. Seeing the light ascend to the heavens... fills Xeno with sincerity and determination as he fixes his eyes on Asgore's cold expression, his eyes hidden as his head is lowered, his breathing just loud enough to be heard and echo throughout the strange room. Xeno could almost hear the monster king's heartbeat in the silence before their final battle begins. It almost feels like a calm before the storm...

  
But the storm is going to come anyway, so Xeno decides to just let it come now as he pulls a worn dagger out of his skirt pocket. He found it somewhere... apparently. He doesn't really know how he got it; probably picked it up during that dream without realizing it. Asgore's eye seems to shine for a moment when he sees Xeno draw the weapon. "...It was nice meeting you, Xeno," he says quietly, his voice echoing in the room. "...Goodbye."

  
The battle finally begins as the king of the mountain raises his hands, magical flames surrounding them as he throws out his opening attack. He swings his fists at Xeno, two lines of flames being fired towards him in a criss cross motion. Xeno finds the attack simple enough to dodge by sneaking his SOUL through an opening in the flames. The attack feels… familiar…? He pauses to think back to where he could have seen that attack before, the hand with the knife lowering and his expression softening as the memory returns to him. “Oh…”

  
While Xeno is thinking back to his first big trauma from this universe, Asgore raises his hand and shoots some spiraling magical flames at Xeno, who snaps out of it and skillfully dances about inside that familiar transparent box keeping him from fleeing. The attack... reminds Xeno of Toriel.

  
Xeno quickly jumps towards Asgore, swiping at his chest armor with the dagger but holding back as much as possible. He doesn’t want to kill Asgore if there’s even a little bit of a chance for them both to live to the end of this. The dagger cuts right through the armor like clay, slicing Asgore’s body in half-

  
No, that’s only an illusion. Asgore is clearly fine; the dagger barely made a dent in reality. Xeno snaps out of it as the invisible walls appear around him again and Asgore holds up his weapon. With his eyes squeezed shut, Xeno could swear he sees a couple shivering tears in his eyes, glimmering orange and blue for just a moment before Asgore swiftly slashes his trident at Xeno, barely giving him enough room to dodge. One of the attacks, where the trident glows blue, misses Xeno entirely. After the attack, Asgore pauses for a moment, seemingly catching his breath but also cracking his watery eyes open to see if his attack hit Xeno at all. He looks as if he’s about to say something, his lips parted slightly as the two stare into each other’s minds through their eyes. Xeno can’t quite read Asgore’s mind, but… that look appears to be saying something along the lines of “don’t hold back. I’m waiting for you.”

  
Xeno closes his eyes as he slices the dagger at Asgore once again, knocking him back a bit bit still not trying to ACTUALLY hurt him. He really just shoved Asgore back a bit in a manner that made it look like an attack. Xeno jumps back a bit as Asgore holds up his trident, pointing it towards Xeno. A small wave of spiraling flames flows from the three tips of it, which Xeno weaves in and out of to dodge. However, he gets hit head-on from a large blast of flames shot from Asgore’s free hand. Xeno winces in pain and uses his short moment of temporary invincibility to rush through the flame whips to get to the safe other side. He glances down at his SOUL, having taken quite a lot of damage from that. He has little burns forming on his body, too. He shudders, glancing up as Toriel shoots another blast of flames at him…

  
_No, no!_ Xeno thinks, shaking his head as he stumbles out of the way. _This isn’t Toriel! This is Asgore! Stay in reality, Xeno! This isn’t-!_

  
Suddenly, a large wave of pain runs through Xeno’s SOUL as the world goes black. Xeno gasps as he sees his SOUL break apart in front of him. “I… I… died…?! Fr-from WHAT?! What attack?! He… he’ll ACTUALLY kill me?!” He looks around in shock in the darkness, trying to pull his mind back into reality.

  
“What was I DOING?!” He growls to himself, clutching at his hair as he feels the guilt start to take over. “Oh god, I… I’m actually gonna… k-kill him?! God, what the hell?! No, I can’t do that! I… I have to find another way…” He lowers his hands and his expression softens slightly, becoming more somber. “…There isn’t another way, is there?”

 

**everything’s gonna be alright!**

 

A voice suddenly echoes through the darkness, making Xeno blink and look around to find where the voice came from. Seeing nothing around, he determines that it must have been in his mind…

  
But it’s a nice thing to hear something like that now. It wasn’t his voice, but that only makes it feel better. _Someone out there is… cheering him on right now?_ Xeno takes a deep breath, then reaches out to press the “continue” button that appears before him. _If someone is cheering for me, I DEFINITELY can’t give up!_ He thinks to himself, a wolfish smile on his face. Just means I can’t let them down. Just another reason to try again. He is plopped back down on the ground right outside the barrier room and, gripping his dagger tightly, he walks back in, ready to face Asgore again. Asgore sighs deeply, then says “ready?”

  
The flashing begins again and Xeno is taken back to the fight, where he dodges Toriel’s first attack perfectly. Xeno shakes his head and growls at himself. “No!” He says to himself. “Stop thinking of her! Not now!”

  
But somehow, every once in a while during the fight, Xeno will look up at Asgore and see Toriel standing in his place, wearing a shimmering crown and cape, holding a magical scepter. Each and every time he has this vision, his body locks up and he gasps, unable to move for just a moment.

  
“My child, I only want what is best for you,” her voice echoes in his mind. “I want to protect you here. We can be a family.” The sound of glass breaking resounds and Toriel screeches “MY CHI-!”

  
It’s not long before he finds himself in the darkness again, Toriel’s scream being cut off by silence.

 

**|\vvv/|**

 

Meanwhile, dust blows through the Ruins along the slow and eerie breeze. Some of it is caught in Ravina’s fur as he approaches a dead tree still standing before a house. The leaves that were once on the tree had all fallen down to the ground and were scattered, no longer in a neat pile that they seemingly used to be in. Dust was mixed in with the leaves and Ravina used his spear to slowly and curiously push around a few leaves to look underneath. There’s nothing there. “…Geez, this is a weird and empty place, huh?” He pulls his spear back to him and goes over to the house. It looks welcoming on the outside, but when Ravina looks through the doorway he sees that it’s completely dark with the only light being the faint rays from the windows and doorway. It looks almost haunted, but Ravina senses no spirits around here, so he walks right in.

  
He looks through the dark and empty house, tracking dust into the once-welcoming house with every step he takes. “Someone lived here, right?” He asks himself. “What happened to them?” He sniffs the air hoping for some kind of clue, but only smells something odd in the air. Mold? Smells like mold. He follows the smell into the kitchen where he sees an old cake sitting on the counter with only a couple slices cut from it. The cake does indeed have mold growing on it, spots of green and grey speckling it. Ravina immediately frowns and turns away from the sight; he absolutely DESPISES wasted food. It makes him sick. “That’s more disturbing to me than if I saw a dead body laying around here,” he mumbles as he walks away from the kitchen, clutching his spear in his claws.

  
After examining the main floor of the house and finding nobody around, Ravina sighs as he realizes that his only other option would be to go down into the basement. “Well, ain’t this what happens in literally every horror movie ever and the viewers are always like ‘no don’t do that you fucking idiot’?” He says as he flips his spear playfully. “Well, I’m sure I’ll be fine. Again, that’s what people say in horror films before making the dumbest mistake in their life. Let’s go get myself killed then.” With that, he steps down the stairs and into the basement hallway.

  
The sound of his claws clicking against the ground and Wolf’s tail dragging dust along behind him fills the otherwise-empty hallway. His eyes dart around, looking for something that he expects is going to sneak up on him and try and attack.

  
But nobody came.

  
He soon finds himself standing in front of a pile of dust with a bloodstained purple dress in it. There’s drops of blood around the scene and a large dark red stain on the pile itself. Ravina stares down at it for a moment; it looks like it’s been there for a while, but not forever. Perhaps a week ago? Give or take a few days. He looks around quickly to see if whatever killed this thing is still around, but sees nothing. “This entire place is completely barren now, I guess,” he comments to the silence. “Just gotta hope that Xeno wasn’t consumed by that emptiness too.”

  
Ravina takes a breath and pushes open the door in front of the dust pile, making a loud creaking noise echo through the hallway. He walks down the hallway past the door and ends up in a dark room lit by a single beam of light in the ceiling. He looks around; it looks like the kind of place Flowey would appear in… but he doesn’t show up. Wolf does, however, see the glimmer of a fake metal tool that he reaches down to pick up.

  
A toy knife with dried blood on it?

  
“What?” Is all Ravina can say about it. Who would use a TOY knife to kill someone? Why not a REAL knife? He gives it a little sniff and… is that the faint scent of Xeno on it? Wolf immediately drops the knife and hurries on, feeling even more determined to find Xeno now. “This doesn’t make sense,” he growls to himself as he heads out the final doorway of the Ruins, taking a couple steps into the snow.

  
The sound of his feet pushing into the snow fills the scene as a cold wind sweeps across his body, chilling him to the bone. He shudders at the feeling, smirking a bit. “God, I love the cold. This is my kind of weather.” He starts to walk down the long pathway through the snow, the coldness of the air making Shadowspear start to freeze over a bit, giving it a more glassy look to it.

  
As he wanders past an empty sentry post and ends up in a little fork in the path, Ravina jumps in surprise as the world flashes black and while and his multicolored rainbow SOUL appears before him. He swiftly raises his spear as a icy dragon(apparently named Snowdrake) flutters forth. Ravina instinctively lunges at Snowdrake, impaling him with the spear. He lets out a pained roar as blood seeps from his wound, then turns to dust and the world fades back into color. Ravina sighs in relief as he lowers his weapon again. “Geez, THAT thing looked tougher than it actually was… But it definitely COULD have been a threat.” He sighs in relief as he makes his way through the snow.

 

**~*^^*~**

 

**stay determined…**

 

Xeno died three times so far. Each time, he feels himself lose a piece of his determination, but then it returns to him sevenfold; one for each of the friends he made on his journey, even the ones who he made the mistake of hurting.

  
Toriel...

  
Sans…

  
Papyrus…

  
Undyne…

  
Alphys…

  
Mettaton…

  
Even Asgore…

  
In his fourth attempt, Xeno’s determination helps guide him through the attacks being aimed at him. He dances around the flames, ducks and jumps out of the way of Asgore’s trident, and slashes back at him in retaliation and determination. As swirling flames surround him, he nimbly slides through the gaps and approaches Asgore, his own flames of hope shimmering in his eyes and reflecting against the metal of his dagger.

  
_It’s not over yet!_

  
The dagger cuts through Asgore's armor like paper, but doesn’t touch his skin. Xeno looks up at Asgore's shocked expression, seeing Toriel's reflection in it, but pushes the thought aside as he raises his knee and kicks Asgore back. Xeno's expression is firm and strong as he stares at Asgore, who was knocked onto one knee from the blow. Asgore quickly rises to his feet again and looks at Xeno, a breeze from beyond the barrier making his hair and skirt gently sway as his eyes stare deeply into Asgore's soul.

  
“Say something,” Xeno orders the king. “Talk to me. Do you really want me dead?” Asgore’s attacks pause for a moment as he stares over at Xeno, his purple SOUL glowing brighter as it seemingly absorbs the light from the ground and reflects it back out with passion. Even the parts that are concealed with LOVE seem to take on a purple hue in the light. Asgore opens his mouth as if to speak, but lowers his head once more and closes his eyes. He whispers something to himself that Xeno can’t make out.

  
Xeno takes a step towards the king, but stops when he sees a glimmer of tears in his eyes. He could swear he saw a shudder go through Asgore's body as he raises his trident to the sky, summoning a storm of falling flames from the sky. Xeno barely even has to look as he moves through the fire rain, approaching Asgore with the dagger readied in his fist. He’s returned to the battle for the moment, but is determined to END it NOW. “I don’t want to fight you!” He growls, his eyes fixed on the king.  
The flames stop falling as Xeno rushes towards Asgore, the dagger giving off a red shine that makes Asgore's eyes go wide. Xeno raises the knife and Asgore holds out his trident. The metals clash against each other, then Asgore thrusts his trident at Xeno, who pushes the weapon to the side with his knife. The two clash their weapons together many times, neither one able to get the upper hand at first. The sound of metal scraping against metal echoes through the room, quiet grunts from the struggling warriors once in a while adding to the symphony of the battle.

  
Eventually, Xeno manages to slide the knife past Asgore’s defenses and slash him in the chest. The king gasps as the trident flies from his grip, crashing to the ground nearby. He groans, dropping to his knees and lowering his head, opening his arms in acceptance of the end. Xeno roars as he jumps at the king, his hand swinging out in front of him as the dagger approaches Asgore's head...

  
But it stops only a centimeter away.

  
Xeno and Asgore hold their positions for a long, drawn out moment of silence. Soon, Asgore slowly raises his head to look up at Xeno, whose eyes have softened a bit as he frowns, holding the dagger still against the king's nose. He shakes his head slightly and slowly. "...How could you really think that I’d kill you?"

  
The dagger is lowered from the king's nose and Xeno flings it to the side. The sound of the metal clinking and sliding against the glowing purple ground echoes throughout the scene as Xeno gives the king a sincere smile, offering his hand instead. "I refuse to kill you, Asgore. We'll find another way for me to escape. I want you to live on... to give hope to the Underground and... and make everything right. We’ve both made some mistakes, huh? But… if you die… you’ll never be able to fix them or make up for them. Same for me. So… stay determined, alright?”

  
Asgore stares up at Xeno, shocked and amazed by his actions. "...Xeno, you... are you really sure?" He slowly raises his hand, a smile beginning to form on his face as he begins to tear up. "Xeno... thank you..." His large hand hovers above Xeno's, shaking as a couple tears fall from his eyes. "I’ll... I’ll take care of you here, Xeno... I’ll keep you safe... until we find a way to help you get home..."

  
Suddenly, both of them gasp and freeze as a ring of little white bullets surrounds them both. Xeno immediately recognizes them and says his name just a split second before he pops out of the ground. “Flowey…!”

  
The flower smirks maliciously as the ring of pellets starts to close in on them. “You IDIOT!!” He spits. “Golly, you sure were in a hurry back when we first met, weren’t you? You never got to finish hearing my saying! In this world…” One bullet from the ring shoots out and hits Asgore, making him let out a quick pained "gah" as blood trickles from the tears in his armor.

  
"I t ' s K i l l O r B e K i l l e d !”

  
The ring of bullets swiftly collapses in on Asgore, his eyes wide in shock as he stares up at Xeno desperately…

  
And Xeno quickly intercedes, shoving Asgore out of the way in one final desperate move to save him. "I'm not from this world, so I don’t fucking care HOW you say it works!" He growls out as he takes every single hit for Asgore. His SOUL shatters in two from the first hit, but every hit after that makes the pieces themselves break in two. The shards keep multiplying with every hit, and Xeno watches in pain and horror as his SOUL appears to completely vanish from existence after a while, the pain going straight to his body and he falls to his knees, the darkness surrounding him. He tries his best not to scream as he can feel Flowey's attacks tugging at his insides like he did in his nightmare. He could see Flowey’s slithering vines wrapped around his heart that was torn from his chest. The vines squeeze it tightly, making it tear apart, about to burst…

  
But it refused.

  
Through sheer willpower and determination, Xeno forces back the darkness and nightmares that had surrounded him and glares over at the flower, who is staring in shock at Xeno. "I’m not... giving up... yet...!" Xeno growls out, the pieces of his SOUL gradually starting to fuse back together as he slowly forces himself to stand. "You... can’t scare me anymore..." He tries to catch his breath as he feels his body's aches and pains begin to fade away as his SOUL becomes only two pieces. "You’re not haunting my nightmares anymore! I’m gonna get free from here someday, and I’m gonna do it MY way! Not YOURS!"  
He grabs the two pieces of his SOUL and pushes them back together, fully re-fusing them again. He crosses his arms, standing proudly as he stares down at the flower before him. "You're not gonna kill me. You’re not gonna scare me. I’m stronger now than I was when I first came here. So? What are you gonna do?"

  
Flowey's petals droop slightly at this, clearly not expecting Xeno to have so much... confidence all of a sudden. But… “Boy, you just don’t know when to quit, huh?” Flowey's expression quickly shifts back to his evil grin, knowing that he's got one final big trick up his stem. "So, you really wanna know what I’m gonna do? Then I’ll show you..."

  
Six colorful SOULs suddenly appear out of the ground surrounding Flowey. "Do you know what these are?" He asks, an excited malice in his voice. "These are the six human SOULs the king’s taken already! And, while you were fighting, guess who got to them?" He laughs, sending a chill down Xeno's spine. "ME, that’s who! Your best nightmare! Wow, this sure is gonna be fun! And do you know what I’m gonna do with these SOULs? Huh? Do ya?" The SOULs start to spin around Flowey and close in on him, every word that the soulless monster says distorting more and more, his face seemingly breaking apart as it fills with some kind of incredible power that no normal being could ever withstand.

  
"I ' m G o i n g T o R i p Y o u r F u c k i n g B o d y T o S h r e d s !"

 

**~E >^/\\##+,+**

 

Xeno gasps in shock as he suddenly finds himself teleported away from the scene. He blinks a few times and rubs his eyes as he adjusts to the bright lights and tries to determine where he is… Wait…

  
“I’m home?!” He exclaims as he jumps and looks around frantically, searching for anything to prove without a doubt that he’s really standing here in his living room, bright and warm daylight seeping in through the open curtains and windows. A breeze gently passes through Xeno’s hair from the window and he walks over to it, looking out to see Tooikuka’s sun shining brightly and illuminating the kingdom. Distanma, Tooikuka Castle, stands proudly and glitters white and gold as the light reflects off it. Xeno has a very good view of the castle from his house, which sits on a floating island in the sky above the kingdom. “There’s no way…” he whispers to himself as he throws open the door and runs outside to stand on the edge of his Island, staring down at the land below. His hair flows in the sky breeze, his shadow stretching out behind him as everything else around him is painted in a golden light from the sun.

  
Xeno growls in frustration as he turns away from the sunlight, rubbing at his eyes as he hides in his shadow. "No... no this isn't real...!" He knows that he should be happy to be home but… this isn’t right. Nothing about this could be real… right?  
“Wait, but do I…?” Xeno says to himself as he tugs on the neck of his shirts and looks at the little red star symbol on his chest. He pokes at it and his fingers slip into the Saikik, making him gasp in shock. “HOLY SHIT MY SAIKIK IS BACK WHAT?!” He pulls his hand out of his symbol, holding a joint of weed in his fingers. He holds his other hand so that it’s near the end of it and uses Saikik to create a small flame in his hand to light it up. “YAAAAASSSS!!!” He smiles as he fist pumps in excitement, then takes a big puff of his weed. Once again, Xeno clearly has his priorities in order, choosing weed over a cell phone.

  
He goes over to his house and leans comfortably against the wall while he smokes. “This is nice…” After relaxing for a few minutes, Xeno pulls out his cell phone and immediately calls Ravina, waiting patiently as the phone rings. No answer. Xeno hangs up and frowns, lowering his joint a bit. “Okay, I’m totally thinking this ain’t real.” He thinks for a moment, then calls Pyro instead. It rings a couple times, then…

  
“Wait, I thought you finally died,” Pyro says in shock immediately upon answering the phone. Xeno cringes at that; about Pyro’s tone towards Xeno. “Gah… nice to speak to you too, Pyro…” Pyro doesn’t actually want Xeno to die though. He actually just THINKS that Xeno will die because he has a bad habit of accidentally (*cough*actually intentionally*cough*) getting himself in bad (*cough*actually pretty fucking deadly*cough*) situations, so Pyro is worried but is too tsundere to show it. The way he phrases things, however, makes it seem like he absolutely hates Xeno.

  
This makes Xeno think that perhaps he really IS home. How would Flowey know about Pyro’s sass and tsundere if this is just some kind of magical illusion he created to trick Xeno? But then… where’s Wolf? “So Pyro… Is Wolfie busy?”

  
“He’s not with you?”

  
Xeno frowns, starting to worry a bit. “What? He’s looking for me?”

  
“He was, but he’s doing something for the MCIF right now I believe. He might have stayed behind for a while to look for you.”

  
“What universe is he in?”

  
“Hm… you’d have to ask the MCIF that yourself. I wasn’t given that information.”

  
“Oh… then I’ll have to ask. Thanks, Pyro! Oh, and uh, can I come over for dinner?”

  
“When have we ever said no to that?”

  
“Uh… never.”

  
“Exactly.”

  
Xeno laughs. “Well, thanks! I’ll, heh… I’ll be there soon! I’m hungry! Bye, Pyro!”

  
“Yeah, goodbye.” He hangs up and Xeno throws his phone back into his symbol, then frowns when he remembers that he doesn’t have wings. “Shit, I’m stuck.” He lives on a floating island in the sky; he absolutely NEEDS wings to do things. His island is very small and only has his house on it and a few trees. Xeno sighs and pulls his phone out again, calling Pyro. “I’m stuck…”

 

**~*^/v,_v**

 

Pyro, being a dragon, had agreed to come and pick him up and help him get down to the mainland. He turned back into his human form when they landed and led Xeno into Distanma so they could eat some food. Xeno found it a bit odd how when he was in the Underground it was just becoming nighttime and here it was the middle of the day, but since they’re different universes it’s probably just because time is different here. Although it seriously begs the question of if this is even real…  
It has to be, right?

  
Xeno sits down at the table that he and Ravina would eat at when they hung out at the castle, mindlessly playing with a fork as he waits for his food to be brought to him. Could this be real? He asks himself. It feels real; it really does, but… Why would I have just suddenly been brought back? And… how? Did Flowey do this somehow? I don’t know HOW he could have done it though. He raises his head to look as a man brings his food to him, placing it down in front of him. He looks at it and frowns. “I, uh, asked for MUSHROOM pizza…” He was given a pizza with some little yellow leaves or something as a topping. He looks up at the man, pointing at it in a sassy way. “The fuck is this?”

  
When the man smirks deviously, Xeno starts to notice something off about him. He has a goat-like head with two long horns and is wearing some sort of purple robe with the delta rune on it. Xeno blinks in shock as he looks up at him. “You… you’re from the Underground!” He exclaims in shock. “How… who are you and how the hell did you GET here?!” The monster chuckles, his face distorting for a moment almost like Flowey.

  
“I’m your best nightmare,” he growls, leaning his hands on the table and smirking a devilish grin at Xeno. “Asriel Dreemurr!” He gestures to the pizza. “Hope you like buttercup pizza, you worthless piece of shit!” He lets out a Flowey-like laugh and pulls away from the table, crossing his arms as his face contorts to look like the soulless flower.

  
Xeno stands up quickly, knocking the chair back as he grips at the edge of the table. Asriel Dreemurr…? He thinks, shuddering at the disturbing monster. He’s… related to Asgore and Toriel…? Wait is he…?!

  
Asriel gives Xeno a toothy grim as he stares down at him. “So, fuckface, you COULD make this easy and just eat the pizza I gave you... Or, you could make things more amusing and come back to try and save your pathetic friends. I’ll be honest; it would probably be really boring if you just gave up now. But if you do, it’d make my job all that much easier.” Xeno shudders in fear, but growls at him to try and seem powerful. “What did you DO to them?! Is Sans okay?! Is Asgore?! Mettaton?! Papyrus?! Alphys?!” Asriel shrugs and shakes his head.

  
“Why don’t you find out for yourself if you really care so much?”

  
A rainbow light suddenly envelops Asriel, then shoots off like a star. Xeno glances down at the buttercup pizza, then growls and shakes his head. “No… fuck, no!” He hastily opens a pathway back to the universe he was in before and plops himself down in…

  
Darkness.

  
There’s nothing here. Everything is darkness like the void-like solitude that consumes Xeno when he dies. Xeno stares around in shock, worry starting to creep into his heart. “W-Wait, what’s all this?! Asriel?! F-Flowey?!”

  
His eyes pick up something yellow shimmering in the distance, which he figures is bad but decides it’s his only real option. He rushes over to it, eventually making out the form of a SAVE point. He jumps at it and touches it as fast as possible, panting from sprinting so hard to get there. He looks up at his SAVE file, reaching out to SAVE when a loud pounding noise resounds throughout the darkness. Xeno gasps as he sees cracks form in the file. “No no nonono!” He pokes the file in desperation, begging for it to SAVE, but screams in shock as something pounds on it again from behind, flinging Xeno onto his back as the cracks spread farther throughout the file. Xeno scrambles to his knees and stares in horror as the file now says “File Erased” on it instead. “Oh FUCK no…!”

  
Finally, the entire file screen shatters to pieces as a thick, spiny vine slams through it and almost crushes Xeno. He gasps and recoils in horror at the vine, throbbing almost as if it has living creatures inside it that are pushing against the inside and trying to break free. The vine is dragged back towards where Flowey himself is sitting in the ground, staring at Xeno with his dead demon eyes.

  
“I knew you’d come back if it meant saving your friends,” he spits. “Although, I really wish you were dead, so I figured I’d at least try taking the easy way out.” He winks at Xeno playfully, the deceitfully innocent act contrasting with the malicious things coming from his mouth. “But this is much more fun anyway!” His face distorts slightly, as if melting away slightly. “Boy, it sure is nice to have a SOUL inside me again! And six of them, at that! I can feel them all wriggling around inside me.” His mouth opens wide as he stares at Xeno, showing off his sharp and uneven teeth as a tongue rolls out of his mouth. He rises from the ground to approach Xeno, who recoils in horror as the flower stares hungrily at him, saliva dripping onto him as a low growl comes from the monster. “Since you wanted to do it the fun way,” Flowey says in a distorted growl. “I’ll take pleasure in tearing you apart limb by limb until all that’s left of you is your stupid determination that I’ll break apart in joy!”  
Xeno screams in fear as he punches Flowey’s face away and scrambles to his feet, taking a few steps back. He can’t even focus enough to use Saikik right now as he watches Flowey move back a bit and chuckle. “You think you can fight back, don’t you?” He suddenly pulls back to the spot where he’s ingrained in the shadowy ground, turning back into a normal-looking flower for a moment.

  
“Y o u R e a l l y A r e A n I d i o t .”

  
He burrows into the ground as Xeno sees his SOUL pop out of his chest. He doesn’t lose his color though and there doesn’t appear to be any invisible walls around him. Not that he’d have anywhere to run anyway. Xeno finally manages to focus enough to form a couple fireballs in his hands in preparation for the battle to come. He’s not amazing at Saikik, but he isn’t all that good at fighting either and so far he’s been… decently okay. He silently prays to the gods that this is going to be okay in the end…

  
A tv pops out of the ground suddenly, making Xeno jump a bit in surprise. He lowers his hands slightly in confusion. “A… a tv? What?” The tv slowly is raised upwards, revealing a mass of coiled vines coming from behind it and tearing open the ground it was resting on. A few thick wires protrude from the sides of the tv and attach to some sort of camouflaged black ceiling above them, pulling a large body of pulsating thorny vines from the ground that spills out like a wet and slimy blob of internal organs. Two large vine arms with hand-like ends sprout from the mass of vines and claw at the ground, leaving trails of a sticky transparent goo against the places where it claws at. A long faded pink head with multiple creepy eyes and teeth breaks out of the bottom of the tv, sticky and gooey drool dripping from its maw and pooling on the ground before it.  
Xeno gags at the sight of it, feeling himself want to vomit. Everything from the way it throbs and the drool coming from its open mouth and those bulging eyes just is absolutely horrific and disgusting. Even the scent is terrible, like a flower but covered in vomit and rotten fruit. The disgusting odor wafts through the area, making Xeno have to dispel the flames in his hands and cover his nose. What even IS this thing?! The stench even makes his eyes water, but he blinks some tears from his eyes as he watches Flowey’s smile flicker on the tv screen. The eyes then open up horizontally to reveal broken bloodshot eyes and his mouth hangs open, falling out of the screen itself as his distorted laugh fills the darkness.

  
Xeno only has a split second to feel panic rise in his chest before the nightmare begins to bombard him with attacks. Flamethrowers suddenly burst out of the ground and spray jets of flames at Xeno. He screams in anxiety as he scrambles out of the way of one stream of flames just to fling himself into another one. “HOLY SHIT WHAT IS THIS EVEN?!” He’s too focused on his fear to really acknowledge the fact that he was injured pretty badly by running straight through the flames. He turns to Flowey, hoping he’d be given just a momentary break but screams again as he sees a swarm of flies coming towards him. He stumbles out of the way of them as best he can, a bunch of them managing to cling to his SOUL and take little bug bites out of it. He trips over his feet in panic and the moment he raises his head he sees a ring of white bullets close in on him and-

  
Game over.

  
Xeno grabs at his chest and hyperventilates, feeling his heart still pounding out of his chest at what just transpired. “Wha… what… the… FUCK?!” He can’t even stop shaking as he hears a voice call out to him in the darkness.

  
**This is all just a bad dream!**

  
A static noise plays, then Flowey’s deep and demonic voice calls out to him.

 

**A N D Y O U ‘ R E N E V E R W A K I N G U P !**

  
Xeno curls up in the shadowy void, squeezing his eyes shut and covering his ears as Flowey’s laugh torments him even in death. “Fuck fuck shit oh god what even is happening right now?!”

  
Xeno chokes on his own fear as he sits up in bed, gripping at his chest with both his hands. He coughs loudly, unable to breath for a moment out of fear. His eyes dart around the room, seeing that he’s back in his bedroom. He takes a moment to calm himself down, telling himself that it’s okay and he’s still alive. But the fear just comes right back as he realizes that if he wants to make sure his friends are okay he needs to go back…

  
And who knows if he even IS alive. Maybe he really IS dead already and this really IS all just a dream. This is his afterlife, perhaps. Being tormented by Flowey and getting to see home but not really be safe and sound. Xeno shakily crawls out of bed and covers his face in his hands, unable to help but cry a little. He doesn’t even know what to think anymore. He has nothing to say to himself or to anyone else right now. After a couple seconds, he snivels and wipes away a couple tears, despite more just forming immediately afterwards, and opens a pathway back.

  
Real or not, he’s gotta keep trying, right?

  
…Right?

  
Xeno hesitantly steps into his pathway to return to the darkness that the Underground has become. He feels his heart pounding out of his chest as he watches in horror as the monstrosity descends from the ceiling, staring down at the little half-human with all of his bloodshot and unnatural-looking eyes. Flowey lets out another laugh, the mere sight and sound of the creature making Xeno’s legs almost give out. He stumbles slightly, definitely not able to focus on using Saikik at the moment. “I’m completely screwed…” he squeaks out quietly once Flowey’s laugh ends.

  
Once more, Xeno has absolutely no time to relax or prepare himself for anything as rings of little white bullets surround Xeno, who tries to slip between them just to end up crashing into one from a new ring that formed a few seconds later. Xeno groans in pain, gripping at his left shoulder where he felt it hit him. Knowing he has no time to rest, he looks around quickly to see the flamethrowers bust out of the ground and shoot the streams of flame at him. He manages to dodge the first stream decently fine, but accidentally clips his SOUL and his right body on the other stream, painful burns forming on the right side of his body.

  
He bites his tongue, trying not to scream again as his eyes dart around to search for the next attack. He sees a bunch of little red spikes poke out of Flowey’s coiled mass of a body, but nothing immediately happens. Xeno looks around for the attack he knows is coming, then out of the corner of his eye sees thin and long vines extend from Flowey’s body, the spikes being the tips of the vines. They all viscously impale Xeno, who feels every vine as it enters his body and SOUL, filling up his core and expanding. He screams out in agony as the vines pull outward, ripping him in half and sending him back to the silence of death.

  
**Don’t give up yet, Xeno!**

**  
I W A N T T O S E E Y O U S U F F E R E V E N M O R E !**

  
“I’VE SUFFERED ENOUGH YOU STUPID FLOWER!!!” He exclaims in rage and panic as he falls out of bed, back in his house once again. He curls up on the ground, futilely trying to make himself feel safe again. “He’s still here…” he whispers to himself, unable to control his shaking. “He’s watching me still I… I can tell… th-that fffucking Flowey j-just… KNOWS things…”  
After taking a long time to try and calm his nerves, Xeno slowly rises to his feet, wishing he could come up with a good excuse to not go back and die to that evil demon again. But… he NEEDS to keep trying. For his friends… they NEED him now. He can’t lose hope yet. He tries to think positively as he breaks open a pathway once again, taking a deep breath before he steps through and watches Flowey descend from Hell once again.

  
This is for ALL of them, he growls to himself, creating the fireballs in his hands as he stands before the beast, filled with determination. He roars back at Flowey as he laughs, then quickly tries to get the first hit by throwing a short barrage of flames at the monster.

  
1 damage.

  
Xeno feels his determination sink down once again as he sees the one appear above a health bar on Flowey’s tv screen. Flowey lets out a cocky “oh” at the hit, smirking and clearly having just barely felt the attack. Xeno lowers his hands again, his confidence completely shot by the pointlessness of his attack. “That… did… nothing…” He was in too much shock at the turn of events that he couldn’t even move when he saw the spikes appear coming out of Flowey’s body, dripping with some kind of unidentifiable transparent ooze. The vines shoot out of Flowey’s body and Xeno literally falls out of the way, crashing straight to the ground. He slowly pulls his face off the ground, glancing up just as he gets incinerated and returns to the nothingness.

  
“ **I’ll keep killing you over and over until you’re fed up!** ” Flowey roars into the silence. “ **Until you’re completely drained of all your stupid FUCKING hopes and dreams! Until all the DETERMINATION inside of you has been siphoned out of your body and litters this desolate black ground! Until you decide to finally GIVE UP and let me WIN!** ”

  
Xeno crawls out of bed slowly and hesitantly, unable to feel any amount of confidence but deciding to just return immediately to the darkness, where Flowey laughs at him once again and kills him with bug bites.

  
“ **It’s only a matter of time until you decide that life isn’t worth FIGHTING for anymore!** ” Flowey laughs. “ **It’s only a matter of time until you FINALLY accept that you'll never see your so-called 'friends' ever again! It’s only a matter of time...** ”  
Xeno returns once again, just to be killed again by one good hit to his SOUL by a little white pellet.

  
“ **U N T I L Y O U A R E C O M P L E T E L Y B R O K E N !** ”

  
He gets incinerated again…

  
“ **And then I’ll become GOD of this filthy universe once I have your SOUL! And you won’t even care! Nobody will even care! Because you’re NOTHING!** ”

  
Impaled and ripped apart…

  
“ **You can beg all you want... you can scream all you’d like... you can call out for help an infinite number of times...** ”

  
Grabbed and squeezed to death…

  
“ **B U T N O B O D Y C A M E . . .** ”

  
And crushed by a vine…

  
“ **And nobody ever WILL come. You'll be stuck here dying to me forever unless you just GIVE UP and admit that there’s nothing left to fight for! Everyone you love is DEAD. YOU are DEAD. So ACT like it!!** ”

  
Then he ends up laying face down in bed, clutching his pillow and sobbing uncontrollably into it. _It’s pointless to fight back now,_ he cries. _I can’t win… I’ve failed… I’ve failed them all! Flowey is right; there’s nothing left anymore! Why am I even wasting my time with this shit?!_ He lets out a muffled scream of agony into his pillow, then just lays there in silence for a long time…

  
Eventually, Xeno manages to drag himself out of bed again, but instead of breaking open a pathway back to underhell he shuffles slowly through his house and weakly opens the door to step outside. The sunlight covering his body doesn’t do anything to hide the pain and guilt inside him. He hugs himself weakly as he mindlessly walks towards the edge of his little island. A small smile is forced onto his face at the thought that his friends are somehow over there past the light… “Maybe if I jump off this island I can follow them through and meet them over there, on the other side,” he whispers to himself as he stands with his toes poking off the edge. He doesn’t even need to look down to know how far down it is; he’s lived here long enough to know exactly what’s beneath him and how far down it is.

  
Asphalt. Maybe a few cars. It’s a pretty dead-quiet road most of the time. Nobody there now.

  
“Wonder if I can really die if it happens in this universe,” he wonders to himself out loud, tears still streaming down his face. A few drops fall down over the edge and drip onto the road below, even though they aren’t visible by the time they get all the way down. “How fitting, isn’t it? This would be how it all ends, huh?”

  
Xeno leans over the edge just to get a good look at the ground far beneath him. He’s experienced death enough times now, so it really shouldn’t hurt all that bad if he just walks into it on purpose. So, thinking that it doesn’t matter anymore anyway, he jumps up towards the sky, stretching out his arms as he stares at the sun. “It’s the end…” After he flies for just a moment, Xeno starts to plummet towards the ground below.

  
His mind is filled with pictures and memories as he descends, but no words. He’s thought of every word he’s ever wanted to say at this point. Why waste time with more? Instead, he simply pictures himself sitting somewhere bright with his friends at his side. He pictures Sans laying in his lap lazily, Papyrus standing beside him and patting his head, Toriel and Asgore sitting beside him and smiling kindly at him, Undyne standing nearby and talking to Alphys, Mettaton posing dramatically and making them all smile…

  
But they wouldn’t be there would they? Flowey took them, so…

  
It’s at that moment that Xeno’s eyes snap open and he gasps, the realization sinking in. His friends couldn’t possibly have gone on to any kind of peaceful afterlife if FLOWEY killed them. He would have taken their SOULs or their essences and imprisoned them somehow. The things he saw throbbing inside Flowey… were they the human SOULs or were they the lives of everyone he met in the Underground?

  
No time to think. Xeno decides to postpone his ultimate demise for just a little while longer as he opens a pathway back to Hell beneath him that he falls into. The pathway cushions his fall but he still crashes into the shadows as he arrives back in the darkness. Flowey looks down at him with a cocky grin on his face. “You were taking a while, shithead,” he spits. “Thought you finally gave up. Oh well. We can do this as long as you’d like!”

  
Xeno forms a concentrated blaze of flames in his hands, thinking back to his Saikik training with Wolf. He learned a few advanced Saikik techniques that this seems like the perfect time to try. “Fireblaze” is the attack Xeno wants to attempt, but he needs to focus on avoiding the vines that are about to shoot out to impale him. He jumps out of the way as the vines shoot out, sticking to the ground for a moment before they get tugged back into the writhing mass of vines that makes up Flowey’s body.

  
Xeno has seen these attacks enough to have a decent enough idea of how to dodge them. Just because he knows how to doesn’t make it easy to do, however. He needs to think fast as he sees Flowey prepare them. The flytrap attack isn’t all that bad, really, and the flamethrowers… he accidentally clips it but only slightly. Just part of his leg gets burned, and despite it hurting it’s nothing much yet.

  
Seeing a small opening to attack when a picture of one of the human SOULs appears on the screen with a little warning, Xeno extends his hand towards Flowey and shoots a long and concentrated blaze of flames at him. The blaze envelopes Flowey’s blob-like body, making him squirm slightly and let out a small “oh!” Xeno looks up to see the health bar on the screen have a number four above it. It’s still discouraging, but… “I’ll stay here for hours if I have to!” He growls as a bunch of knives surrounds him. He dances through the spinning knives, his determination glistening in his eyes. “I’m gonna defeat you no matter how long it takes! My friends ARE worth fighting for! I WON’T DIE!!”

  
Suddenly, the knives slow down and start to shake, then with a flash they all suddenly turn into green magical bandages. They home in on Xeno, turning into pure light and getting absorbed into Xeno’s SOUL as they touch him. He feels his body healing with every drop of light that his SOUL absorbs. Xeno glances up at the screen, seeing the hazy image of a human on it for a split second before static fills the screen and Flowey’s growling face returns. Xeno can’t help but let a cocky smirk creep onto his face.

  
Looks like he’s not alone in this fight after all.

  
“This is stupid!” Flowey spits, raising his fist and flinging drops of ooze at Xeno. “You really think you can WIN?” He smashes his fist down, shattering the ground that Xeno was standing on. Luckily he dodged the attack just in time. Xeno focuses on the red Saikik forming in his palms, preparing another Fireblaze attack. He bounces over Flowey’s arm that sweeps across the ground, using Saikik to help him jump higher. He then quickly swings his own arm around to incinerate Flowey’s vine arm, making him let out a quick roar as a layer of plants on the arm is burned off and leaving the layer underneath charred. Flowey pulls back his arm and tries to shake off the burns, then roars and slams his claw to the ground in rage. “You’ll pay for that, damn you!!” Xeno shrugs with a little smirk on his face. “Actually, I think YOU’LL pay. I’ve already paid I think. You’re kinda overdue on your payment.”

  
Flowey’s eye twitches in annoyance at the taunts. “Stop FUCKING taunting me!! You’re just BEGGING to die again, aren’t you?!” His two front eyes on his body glow for a moment as waves of sharp white stars fling out of them. Xeno hops back and forth between them, but still gets cut on a few of them. He wavers for a moment as he glances up to see an orange SOUL appear on the screen with a warning sound.

  
A bunch of gloved hands sprout from the ground suddenly and start to reach out to Xeno. He jumps in surprise and hops on top of one that crashes to the ground before him. When another tries to crush him, he bounces onto it as well. “Holy shit Wolfie would have a field day here,” Xeno comments with a chuckle as he continues to bounce from one hand to another. He glances up at the screen, talking to the SOUL itself. “Man, there was this one time Wolf used his Illusion Saikik to play this amazing prank on Geno by haunting him with a wolf drawing with realistic human hands photoshopped onto it. He was COMPLETELY freaked out by it. It was fucking hilarious! I swear, if you coulda seen his face when the drawing would just be taped all over the trees and stuff when he’d wander into the forest… he was SO pissed!!”

  
Suddenly, the hands slow to a stop, then with a flash they all turn green and get absorbed by Xeno’s SOUL. He looks up at the screen, seeing a laughing person for a split second before static fills the screen and Flowey’s face returns with an unamused expression. “You’re a fucking idiot… That’s not even funny…” The remaining hands retract into the ground and Xeno shrugs. “I thought it was funny. The human did too I think.”

  
Flowey decides to not even humor this conversation any more and return to trying to murder Xeno. The words “File 2 Saved” appear on the screen as he shoots streams of stars from his eyes at Xeno. Xeno moves carefully through the narrow safe zone in the attack, then runs over to a safer spot when the attack ends. He sees spikes start to protrude from Flowey’s body and he prepares to jump out of the way…

  
When suddenly he’s back in the star streams. His body locks up for a moment in surprise, getting grazed by the stars in his hesitation. “Ah what they fuck?!” He swiftly bounces back into a safe zone and glances up as Flowey laughs down at him, the words “File 2 Loaded” on the screen. Xeno grimaces at the sight; Flowey is way too knowledgeable about this “SAVE” thing and Xeno is not okay with that. Why does HE know how to use it so well? Xeno sees the spikes come out of Flowey’s body and “File 2 Saved” appears on the screen again. Xeno groans; why HERE? He rolls out of the way and lets some orange Saikik energy coalesce in his hands. The SOUL was orange, so he might as well try some Ground Saikik which is orange-colored energy.

  
And then he’s back in front of the spikes. This time he knew he’d end up back there and he jumps out of the way the moment it registers in his mind that he’s back there, then slams his fists into the ground to release the Earthquake Saikik attack. Xeno’s not so good at Ground Saikik, but he’s not horrible at it. Shockwaves from the energy are sent through the ground and cause the shadows around Flowey’s body to break apart slightly, making him fall into a little pitfall. He doesn’t sink all that low, however, and the wires in the invisible ceiling pull him back up again, but now he has to hold himself up to prevent himself from falling into the pitfall beneath him. Slime rolls off his body and drips into the small chasm as his face glitches out in anger and static tries to take over the screen. “Stop making this so annoyingly difficult!” He spits, shooting star waves at Xeno again.

  
The screen shows a kind of pinkish-purple SOUL on the screen. It’s lighter than Xeno’s SOUL and that color could either be used for Defense or Assist Saikik. He watches as typed words fling themselves out of the ground and ceiling, trying to attack him. They’re all pretty dark and depressing words, too. “Murder,” “Hate,” “Despair,” etc. Xeno rolls his eyes at them, bouncing out of the way when they get close to him. “I’ve heard worse already, man,” he says. “This isn’t gonna break me now. I’m determined to beat this stupid Flowey back into the ground. And I’ve never really been good with words, but perhaps you’re better. How about some words of encouragement?”

  
The hatred begins to slow down, then they get replaced with green words of kindness that helps heal Xeno’s SOUL. He looks up to see a person scribbling something down in a notebook for a moment, then static and Flowey’s face returns. “Words aren’t going to help you now!” He growls. “Can’t you see that?! This is INSANITY! I don’t understand WHAT you think just surviving this long will accomplish!!”

  
He pukes out a few giant green spike balls with teeth that rush at Xeno and try to take a bite out of him. Xeno raises the purple energy in his palms and creates a small rectangular shield of Starmatter(solidified stardust) that he hides behind. The one spike ball clinks off the shield and makes it turn back into stardust. Xeno quickly reforms the shield as the second one approaches him. It also clinks off it and breaks it apart again. If Xeno was better at this he could probably make one that wouldn’t break after one collision, but again, he’s not perfect at this. Also, it’s hard to focus on Saikik when all of a sudden there’s giant fingers with flower heads on the tips being shot out at him.

  
After dodging and blocking a few of the finger shots, the warning noise plays and he looks over to see a green SOUL on the screen. A few frying pans pop out of Flowey’s body and start to sizzle, flinging little white embers at Xeno. He dances around between the raindrops of fire, looking up at the pans. “Can you cook pizza?” He asks. “Do you like mushrooms? I love mushroom pizza. It’s my favorite food. I bet you could make mushrooms if you wanted! Haha… I remember that time me, Geno and Wolfie went to Pizza Shroom Place for the first time. This waiter there TOTALLY had the hots for me. He called me ‘King Xeno-Senpai’ for some reason. I don’t know why, but I thought it was funny so I let him keep doing it. His name is Pi! Like, the number Pi. Three point one four or whatever. But its also funny because ‘pizza pie’ and he works at a pizza place.”  
With a flash, the embers turn into green mushrooms falling from the pan. Xeno blinks in surprise, then laughs and excitedly chases the falling green mushrooms. “Yay! Thank you! I bet they’re delicious!” He gives the cooking person on the screen a wink, then the pans disappear as static fills the screen, returning to Flowey’s completely “done with your shit” expression. He roars in rage as giant Flowey bombs sink out of the ceiling, falling down to blow Xeno up. Xeno’s eyes go wide and he scrambles around to dodge the explosions. “WOW OKAY YOU REALLY ARE PISSED OFF NOW!!” He exclaims. “BOMBS?! REALLY?! THEY LOOK LIKE FUCKING NUKES WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!”

  
Xeno screams as he gets flung across the darkness by the shockwaves of the explosions. He crashes face first into the shadows, then quickly jumps to his feet and pools some green energy into his palms as he swerves in between the flower finger shots. He twirls around a little, using Wind Saikik to whip up a Gale Storm with winds that cut sharply against Flowey’s body. He lets out a pained “oh” as places on his body are cut open, a thick greenish-yellow substance oozing out of his wounds. The putrid aroma wafts through the shadows and makes Xeno gag again. “Fuck, that’s ripe…” He vomits a little in his mouth, half regretting doing that. But after a glance at Flowey’s health bar that is filled about a sixth of the way with red, Xeno determines that he’s definitely making progress. He coughs out some bile. It’s not making the stench any easier to deal with though.

  
The warning noise plays as a yellow SOUL appears on the screen. Xeno pools some yellow energy into his hands quickly, preparing a Lightning Saikik attack in advance. A gun drops out of the tv on Flowey’s body, taking aim around Xeno. The gun isn’t directly aiming at him, but aiming close enough that he finds it easy to accidentally run into a bullet while trying to dodge another. His fists crackle with electricity as he swallows, trying to push the taste of bile out of his mouth. “H-hey, why are you aiming that at me? Flowey’s the one who’s hurting you. Why don’t you turn that around and shoot at him not me? I’m here to help you!”

  
As the flash turns the bullets into four-leaf clovers, Xeno lets loose a blast of green electricity known as Saikik Nuclear Shock. The static goes up Flowey’s body and fills his entire being, making his screen flicker and change with static. His face is replaced with distorted human faces screaming and crying as static switches the picture like changing channels.

  
Suddenly, Flowey freezes up completely as the colors of all the human SOULs pop out of his screen. They float there as they send out green lights of hope and inspiration that gets absorbed by Xeno’s SOUL. He feels his body healing with every light that envelops his SOUL. Words start to type onto Flowey’s screen:

 

**You can feel the hopes and dreams of everyone in the universe beating as one.  
** They’re calling out to you in a single, united voice.  
Everyone you’ve met…  
Everyone you’ve never met…  
Everyone you love…  
Everyone who loves you…  
Their words of inspiration serenade you as they all sing a harmonized plea of sincerity.  
“You are our final hope.”  
“We all believe in you.”  
“Xeno…”  
S t a y D e t e r m i n e d . 

 

Xeno looks on in awe as Flowey start to move again, slowly and weakly as static on the screen washes away the previous text and another one appears in its place.

  
**Flowey’s defense has dropped to 0.**

  
Xeno feels a determined smile sneak onto his face as he fills his hands with red energy. “Maybe I really CAN save the world!”  
Flowey’s face returns to the screen and he looks down at Xeno, flames of anger sparking in his bloodshot eyes. “N o . . . !” He raises his good arm, visibly shaking out of either rage or weakness… or perhaps both. “T h i s I s N o t Y o u r F i g h t T o W i n !” He screams out a pained screech as his arm slams onto the ground, breaking open a deep crevasse in the shadows. Xeno had easily bounced out of the way and cracks his knuckles, hands glowing white in preparation for his attack. “This isn’t MY fight to win, you’re right.” He raises one hand and summons a cloud of glittering stardust above him. “It’s OUR fight to win!”  
Flowey weakly shoots out slow waves of stars at Xeno, who twirls out of the way to easily dodge it so he can focus on his attack. Light Saikik… that’s Wolf’s specialty, not his. But at the same time, he’s learned a thing or two from Wolf. He’s never been all that good at it, and a part of him thinks now isn’t the time to try anything new.

  
Then there’s the rest of him that says now is the perfect time to get the hang of it.

  
Xeno sends the cloud of stardust at Flowey, letting it envelop him and cling to his slimy body. He groans and tries to fling it off him, but to no avail. Xeno then uses his other hand to order the stardust to condense, creating a scaly layer of Starmatter on Flowey’s body, then snaps his fingers and makes it break apart, tearing off bits and pieces of the monstrosity and making him roar out in pain as the gooey substance squeezes and drains from his body. It smells absolutely repulsive, but Xeno has other things to worry about other than the stench.

 

“This is the grand finale,” Xeno asserts with his arm outstretched, Saikik energy crackling in his fist as his red eyes glimmer with determination. “I’m gonna give my friends a real show here at the end! And afterwards…” He snaps his fingers again, the white magic in his hand sparking up as white light swirls and condenses into a little ball above Flowey’s screen.

  
“I’m gonna make sure you can’t fuck anything up ever again. You’ll NEVER be the end of us.”

  
The light ball expands and explodes in a Supernova-like fashion, causing Flowey’s wires to detach from the ceiling and making him crash into the pitfall beneath him. He roars in pain, clawing at the ground with his two long broken vine arms. Xeno steps forward, creating little Starmatter arrowheads that glow red, blue and purple as he approaches the false god. Flowey raises his head to glare hatred at Xeno, who doesn’t even seem to care anymore. Flowey swings a vine at Xeno, who swirls some purple energy in his hand and creates a powerful Starmatter shield that protrudes from the shadowy ground, stopping the vine in its tracks. He chuckles, pointing at Flowey and making the incredible multitude of Starmatter arrowheads all aim towards the demon.

  
This attack is Starshard. It’s Wolfie’s signature attack. He tried to teach it to Xeno before, but without the proper motivation Xeno would always mess up at some point and failed to control it. Now is a perfect time for Xeno to feel motivated and powerful enough to fully harness this special power.

  
He stands before the screen, Flowey’s eyes betraying him and showing legitimate fear despite his smile trying to make him look unafraid. Xeno stands there in silence for a while, neither of them attempting to do anything for a moment. Flowey will not apologize for his sins, and Xeno refuses to give up now. With a sigh, Xeno lowers his hand.

  
“Don’t you have anything better to do, Flowey?”

  
The Starmatter arrowheads lunge towards Flowey, who screams out in pain as each one punctures his body, digging into him and making his puke-like substance seep out of his wounds…

 

**File 3 Loaded.**

  
The battle has been restarted. Xeno is standing before Flowey once again, the dark empty world left with no more cracks and Flowey’s health bar back up to full. Xeno stands there, frozen in shock with his antennae drooped low and his mouth open as if to question what just happened. When did he…?

  
_Then it really IS pointless…_

  
Flowey laughs maniacally at Xeno, actually laughing so hard he starts to tear up. “Wow, you’re so fucking DUMB!! What, you didn’t think I’d actually let you WIN, did you?!” He continues to laugh insanely, every second Xeno hears it his confidence shrinks down more and more. “There’s no winning this fight…”

  
Xeno’s legs finally give out and he collapses on the ground, unable to find the will to move at all. _This is how it ends,_ he thinks. _We’ll keep doing this forever if we have to. It’s a never ending nightmare that I just cant wake up from. If I start to feel like there’s hope, I’ll just be returned to the start and realize it was all an illusion. Why did I even think for a second that there was any hope? Truly… sincerity and determination can’t help me now… I can’t help anyone now…_

  
Flowey’s laugh rings though the darkness while Xeno hides his face in his hands, begging and quietly calling out to the nothingness…

  
But nobody came.

  
But…

  
Wait…

  
Somebody came?

  
Flowey’s laugh suddenly gets cut off when a noise of shattered glass pierces the darkness. “What? What’s this? The SOULs…?” Xeno blinks his eyes open and weakly peeks his eyes over to see Flowey, who is darting his own eyes around at the six multicolored SOULs floating around him. He then lets out a pained scream as a rainbow light starts to envelop him, seemingly breaking apart his entire body. “NO NO NO!!” He roars out in rage, clawing at the ground as his body disintegrates. “YOU OBEY ME!! YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO OBEY ME!! I AM YOUR GOD!! HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO ME!!”

  
His eyes immediately dart to Xeno, then in a moment of quick thinking he swiftly grabs Xeno by the leg and raises him up. Xeno screams in fear as he is pulled close to Flowey’s shaking and distorted face. “I ‘ M F U C K I N G D O N E W I T H Y O U !”

  
He suddenly flings Xeno into the distance before the darkness is suddenly dispelled and the world returns to normal. Xeno crashes face first into the dirt, sliding through it and hitting his head against a rock. He groans in pain and slowly sits up, dizzily rubbing his throbbing head. “Oooowww…” He takes a moment for the world to stop spinning, then blinks for a moment while his eyes adjust to the colors. He looks up curiously at the sky, seeing the clear black sky with white stars sprinkled about the canvas, no moon in sight. He freezes for a moment, letting it all sink in, then his eyes go wide in shock. “I’M FREE?!”

  
Xeno scrambles to his feet and looks around, seeing the trees and rugged mountain around him. “Oh shit I’m out! I’m above ground now!” He turns around to see a crevice in the mountain, the magic barrier still up and as strong as ever. He carefully approaches it, eventually able to make out Flowey in his usual golden flower body poking out of the ground. He looks completely beaten and torn up, sizzling and smoking from whatever the SOULs did to him. He glares up at Xeno, his head held low.

  
“Are you happy now?” He spits. “You’re FREE. I’m DONE playing with you. The human SOULs are all GONE. They all shattered once they finished with me. So? ARE you happy now? You’ve set the Underground back so far with this. They now need seven more SOULs to be freed from this hell. But it doesn’t matter, does it? You wouldn’t give your SOUL up to free them all, would you? You’d rather free yourself than free an entire race of monsters from captivity.” He raises his head, a broken smirk on his face. “You’re just as selfish as them, aren’t you? I don’t want to ever see you again, you stupid ass mother fucking BITCH!” His face contorts with rage, melting away slightly and making Xeno flinch and recoil in fear.

  
“G E T T H E F U C K A W A Y F R OM H E R E A N D N E V E R C O M E B A C K .”

  
With that, he ducks into the ground, leaving Xeno standing outside the barrier to stare in horror at the things that just transpired. “Oh… my… god…” is all Xeno can seem to force out.

  
After a moment, he hears the shuffling of footsteps coming from behind the barrier. Footsteps, so it isn’t Flowey again, which makes Xeno feel slightly relieved. He feels even more relieved when he sees the form of Sans start to be revealed through the hazy magic barrier. Xeno smiles and lets out a little sigh. “Oh thank god it’s just you, Sans…” Sans pauses for a moment, a look of dread in his face but he still smiles as usual. “ h-hey there, uh, xeno…” he stutters, clearly a bit overwhelmed by something. Xeno wonders if Sans knows everything that just took place with that monstrosity that was Flowey. His question is quickly answered as Sans takes a few more steps closer to the barrier and looks at Xeno in a concerned way. “uh, what… what just happened…? i felt some kind of… er, disturbance after you spared asgore and… uh, he’s alive by the way. in case you were curious. well, wanna tell me what took place here?”

  
_He doesn’t know then,_ Xeno thinks as he glances at the ground, not really wanting to think back on the recent events. “It, well, uh…” he says, trying to think of how to describe it. “Well, it’s… didja see that flower that was just here? ‘Cuz it, uh, kinda turned into a half-god and tried to kill me…” Sans blinks at the information, silent for a moment before just responding with a “ huh.” Xeno frowns at the basic response. “That’s it? Just a little ‘huh’ is all that is?” Sans shrugs. “sorry, buddy. i’m just… heh. my bones are a bit rattled right now is all. sorry if i’m worrying you or anything. i don’t mean to.”

  
Sans steps closer to the barrier and places a hand against it, the barrier glowing in changing rainbow colors where his skeleton hand collides with it. “i did see your fight with asgore,” he says, staring listlessly at the barrier. “you’ve gotten a lot more confident, kid. it’s good. keep that up.”

  
Xeno suddenly reaches through the barrier(he should be able to pull back out as long as most of him stays outside it) and presses his palm against Sans’s, locking their fingers together and making the skeleton snap out of whatever daze he was in. “Sans,” He says sternly. “What’s wrong? You’re not okay right now.”

  
Sans’s eye light shrink down a bit in surprise, staring into Xeno’s eyes that appear to be searching his for some kind of response. The skeleton lets out a little sigh, then says “well, it’s really not much. just, well... heh. you already know we’re gonna miss you, xe. this isn’t new information to you or anything. still, i...” His voice trails off for a moment, considering his words. “...you’re not coming back anytime soon, are you?”

  
Xeno doesn’t respond to this at first. He frowns, realization sinking in. He really can’t go back there, can he? He would be trapped again and would be in the same situation he was in before. Unless he wants to live the rest of his life there in the Underground, he’s never going back. His antennae droop in sadness as that fact sets in, lowering his gaze to his feet. “Oh... Well, I... I guess you’re right, huh?” Sans gives Xeno’s hand a gently squeeze with a somber smile on his face.

  
“no, xe, it’s okay,” he says in an attempt to be reassuring. “this is just... how things have to be. for now. one day we’ll all be set free from here and then we’ll be able to see each other whenever we want.” His smile falters when he sees the shimmer of a tear on Xeno’s face. “n-no, xe, please don’t cry... it’s okay, i promise. this isn’t the end; i swear.” He reaches out to give Xeno a hug, but his attempt is blocked by the barrier, making him pause in surprise as if he forgot it was there for a moment. “uh, um, well...” He hesitates, not wanting Xeno to feel sad but unable to come up with any real words of comfort save for what he’s already said. Eventually, he just says quietly “...sorry. i’m just not very good at goodbyes, am i?”

  
The two stand there in silence, their hands linked together to try and give both of them some sort of comfort in the situation. Xeno’s face is concealed in shadows when he finally whispers “yeah, you’re not, huh?”

  
Sans doesn’t respond for a moment, feeling guilty now for even thinking coming here was a good idea, but jumping in surprise when he hears Xeno let out a little snicker. “uh, h-huh?”

  
Xeno starts to chuckle quietly, the raises his head and laughs, tears still in his eyes. “Ahaha! Oh, Sans! You... hehe! You can be funny even when you don’t try, can’t you?” Sans blinks in surprise at this. “...what?” Xeno wipes away a couple tears, sniveling a little as he looks at Sans with a little smile on his face.

  
“I’m gonna miss you, buddy,” he says. “But, I know that with Wolfie’s help, I’ll find a way back into the Underground! Maybe even an alternate way to break the barrier! The MCIF has some pretty smart people there, so if they work on it I’m sure they’ll come up with something! Then you’ll get to meet Wolfie! Man, that’ll be so fun! The Underground will be overwhelmed by laziness and puns! I can’t wait for you two to meet!” He reaches into the barrier with both hands and lifts Sans up a little, pulling him closer so Xeno can lean through just slightly to give the skeleton a quick kiss, then pulls his face back and places Sans back onto the ground. “So, it’s still a ‘see you later’ then! Maybe not ‘soon,’ but... later! That’s a promise, and I don’t make promises I can’t keep!”

  
Sans stares at Xeno with a hint of a blue blush on his face, then smiles again as usual and chuckles quietly. “heh heh. yeah, guess you’re right. i really shouldn’t worry so much, huh? sorry, xe. well, a lot has happened this past week or so. i’m... just overwhelmed by it all.” Xeno nods.

  
“I get it. So am I, honestly... But if I can survive all this, I’m sure you can too! You were still the most helpful guy in the whole Underground despite being the laziest. So... thanks, Sansy!” Sans chuckles at this; Xeno’s just so adorable. “well, you’re welcome then,” he says. Xeno slowly and with hesitation parts their hands, pulling his hand out from behind the barrier. He twirls a piece of his hair around his finger, a little blush on his face. “Well... I guess this is see you later?” Sans hesitates, but nods slightly anyway. “yep, guess so. then... see ya later, xe. i’ll miss you.” Xeno takes a small step back from the barrier, breaking open a pathway home behind him and seeing Sans flinch in shock at seeing it for just a moment, then recalls that Xeno is from another universe and returns to normal. Xeno smiles at the skeleton, giving him a little wave.

  
“I’ll miss you too, Sans. See you... I...”

  
Meanwhile, somewhere in the distant underground and far away from Xeno and Sans, the sound of bones breaking cuts sharply into the room like a wound from a knife. Or, in this case, a spear.


	8. Looks Like Nobody’s Home ~ But Hope Refused to Die

Small drops of blood trickle onto the kitchen tile as the spear pierces through the tall skeleton's armor and breaks through his ribs, even creating a dent in the wall behind him. “THAT’S... NOT WHAT I WAS EXPECTING...” he says, trying his best to keep a smile on his face despite the excruciating pain in his ribs. He lets out a cry of pain as the wolf’s claws grip tightly at his jaw, forcefully slamming his head against the wall while the spear is slowly pulled out of him.

  
“No, it wasn’t, was it?” Ravina spits, his steel-cold blue eyes fixed on Papyrus, who is trying to look away in fear. Ravina pulls the spear back, then slams the point into the wall beside Papyrus’s face. “Where. The FUCK. IS he?” Papyrus squeezes his eyes shut, squeaking in panic. He can feel his body slowly start to turn to dust starting from his ribs and spreading outward. His body is starting to go numb as it dissolves. “HE-HE’S NOT HERE!!” The terrified skeleton insists. “R-REALLY!!” His eyes shoot open again as the spear is suddenly thrust into his neck bones, breaking straight through it. The wolf wiggles the spear around a bit, loud cracking of bones mixing with cries of misery until Papyrus’s skull detaches from his body, the rest of his body limply dropping to the floor. Ravina continues to hold Papyrus’s whimpering skull in place while he takes his finger on his other hand to run his fingertip across the bottom the broken neck bone in curiosity. “Skeletons have blood in this universe, huh?” He comments, looking down at his gloved fingertip, the blood-drenched black fabric clinging even tighter to his fur underneath. “Interesting.” He gives the bloody finger a quick suckle to taste it, then pulls Papyrus’s crying skull off the wall. He holds the skull in front of his face, a deadpan look in his eyes. “You do realize this would have been much easier if you had just led me to Xeno, right?”

  
Papyrus whimpers, glancing over to see his body having mostly turned to dust; only half of his arms and legs are left in the bloody and dusty mess. “I-I JUST... HE SAID YOU... Y-YOU WERE SO NICE SO...” he cries. “I THOUGHT W-WE COULD BE FR-FRIENDS TOO...” Wolf sighs, shrugging as he lazily allows the skull to roll out of his hand and onto the floor.

  
“I’ve seen this song and dance before,” He explains. “You act all innocent and nice and friendly but then the moment I let my guard down enough, you turn on me and try and kill me.” He chuckles, his toothy wolf smirk sneaking onto his face for a brief moment before he continues to frown. “I’ve lost friends to people like you on my travels. I’m lucky I’ve kept Xeno for this long... but...” He raises his foot and steps down on the skull, putting a slow and calculated amount of pressure on the bone; enough to hurt, but not enough to crush it and end the poor fool’s misery. “But with the way things seem to be going, I probably already lost him. But hey, I like to keep hope alive if at all possible. So, I’ll keep on looking for him anyway. At least until I’ve got proof he’s either dead or alive.”

  
A teasing pressure from Wolf's paw presses against Papyrus’s cheekbone, making the skeleton clench his teeth to try and muffle his cries. Once the pressure is slightly lifted, he glances up at Wolf and says in a shaky voice "I... DON'T THINK Y-YOU'RE THE WOLFIE HE WAS T-TALKING ABOUT... BECAUSE THE… THE W-WOLFIE HE WAS T-TALKING ABOUT IS… IS NICE… NYEEEH!!” He cries out again as the torturous pressure returns, unable to hold back the tears forming in his eyes. Wolf rolls his eyes in an uncaring manner. "Nah, that’d be me," he says. "But geez... how much did he tell you, anyway? This is why I tell him not to go to new universes without me. He has a tendency to slip up and give too much away." He continues to playfully roll the skull against the paw pads of his feet, completely unfazed by the skeleton’s pleas.

  
Wolf accidentally puts too much pressure on the skull, making Papyrus’s lower jaw break off from the rest of his body. Wolf’s eyes go wide in surprise for a moment, then laughs. “Oops, sorry. Sometimes I don’t know my own strength, huh? Well, I was gonna drag this out, but...” He stares down as Papyrus watches his jaw turn to dust, tears of painful agony streaming down his face. Wolf then presses his foot downward, a loud and slow cracking sound tearing apart the friendliness of the otherwise-empty house as the skull breaks into pieces and slowly turns to dust.

 

**~*^^*~**

 

A cold gust of wind blows over Xeno's island, chilling him while he stares up at the afternoon cloud-covered sky. The vibrant purple flowers of his garden sway and Xeno glances down at them. Wolf had given them the nickname “Xenostar flowers” because purple is Xeno’s favorite color and theres a little yellow star in the middle of the flower. Despite being basically ignored for about a week, the Xenostars appeared just as alive as ever. Xeno holds his hair out of his face against the wind. "It really IS daytime here," he comments to himself. "It's nighttime back in the Underground. Or, that universe. That planet in that universe. Yeah. That." He inhales deeply, then lets out a huge sigh of relief as he pulls his pink ribbon out of his hair, letting his hair fall out of its ponytail and sway loosely in the wind. "Fuck, man..." he groans quietly. "Finally... Honestly I can't believe I actually made it back. For real, I mean. But..."

  
He sighs again and turns back towards his house. "I'm a bit surprised how... unsatisfied, I guess? Yeah, how unsatisfied I am to be back. Like, I just feel like... there's something off about this. I really feel like I have some kind of... unfinished business back there." He shuffles into his house, really just wanting to take a nice long nap. He rubs at his tired eyes as he makes his way straight to his bedroom. The moment he steps into the room, however, he stops to just stare at the bed for a moment.  
It looks messed up like Xeno had left it the last time he woke up there after dying to Flowey. "Was... all that REAL then...?" He pulls out his phone and checks his notifications; there's a text from Pyro asking "What, did you change your mind about eating here? Or did you die?" Xeno blinks in surprise at the messages, confirming that it, in fact, was not an illusion. He was actually here.

  
But he's a bit too exhausted at the moment to freak out about that like he usually would. Instead, he just says "well, shit" to himself as he turns away from the bedroom. "There's a kinda... depressing energy in that room at the moment," he comments to himself. "I'll, uh... get Wolfie to clean that bad energy later."

  
Instead, he plops himself down on the couch, laying on his belly and smushing his cheek against a pillow. He pulls off his gloves and shoves his arms under the pillow. He mumbles a couple barely-audible things to himself, particularly about cuddly skeletons and robots, then lets himself drift off to sleep.

  
And has yet another nightmare. He’s been getting those even more than usual since going to the Underground, hasn’t he?

 

**|\vvv/|**

 

Ravina pulls his dusty and blood-soaked foot out of the mess he made, then takes a breath and looks up from the carnage. “Welp. THAT problem’s outta my way. Time to explore.” He lifts his paw to scrape the bottom against the kitchen table in an attempt to get the bone shards out of his paw pads, then plops his foot back onto the ground. Still a few tiny pieces in there, but whatever; Wolf is too lazy to work any harder to clean the remains out.

  
He looks through the kitchen a little bit, shuffling through the fridge like a scavenger. He picks up a plate of leftover spaghetti and sniffs it. "Smells... fine." He carries it over to the microwave and heats it up for a minute, leaning against the counter and scraping his thumb claw against the tip of his index finger as he waits for the food to heat up; the feeling of his sharp claws pressing against his skin is actually quite comforting to the wolf. But when he pokes anyone else they recoil and say it hurts. Wolf always thinks that’s funny; they’re weak. Or maybe Wolf is a masochist. One or the other. Or both.

  
After a minute, the microwave beeps and Wolf removes the spaghetti and slams his face into it, taking a huge bite out of it and splattering sauce all over his face, then pulls back from it and slurps the noodles up.

  
"Tastes... shitty," he says after swallowing the mouthful. He lazily drops the plate to the ground, figuring that there’s dead skeleton dust on the ground so he can leave the spaghetti and now-broken plate there too. Ravina rummages through the fridge again, frowning at the multitude of different types of ketchup. "Geez, it’s almost as if the skeletons outright drink this shitty... shit." He picks up one of the many bottles. “‘Hard Ketchup Cider’…?” He reads the label. “What? Okay, sure…” He quickly places it back in the fridge. “I’ve found weirder shit before.”

  
Eventually, Ravina decides to give up on the kitchen and head out into the skeleton's living room. "That's a comfy couch," he comments out loud to himself, taking some time to look around at the room a bit more thoroughly than he already has.  
Wolf already saw the room because he had met Papyrus almost immediately after entering Snowdin Town, then was promptly escorted to the house. Wolf had checked inside a store and found it empty with a note that ordered nobody to steal things. So, naturally, Wolf stole a whole mess of cinnamon bunnies. And when he exited the store, he saw the skeleton looking around the town with a slightly concerned look on his face that turned into relief the moment he saw the wolf walk out of the store. Apparently, he was worried because everyone seemingly disappeared from town.

  
“OH, YOU’RE NEW,” the skeleton had said. “YOU LOOK LIKE A WOLF. ARE YOU THE WOLFIE THAT XENO ALWAYS TALKED ABOUT?” Wolf was shocked that this monster knew who he was, and mentally slapped Xeno when he realized that he had apparently made it very well known that he was from another universe. _That’s not something you usually are supposed to tell everyone…_

  
Anyway, after learning that Ravina is indeed Xeno’s “Wolfie,” Papyrus had eagerly invited him to his house for a while to supposedly befriend Wolf or something. Wolf was very wary about the offer, but figured if he followed along just a bit perhaps he can learn something before he turns the tables on the monster. But it didn't take Wolf long to realize he wasn't getting anywhere with that so when Papyrus went into the kitchen, claiming to be going to get them some snacks, Wolf followed and confronted him. Even in the end, Wolf didn't get anything much out of him. Useless.

  
Forgettable.

  
Now back in the present, Wolf examined a dirty sock left on the floor with a series of sticky notes attached to it. He knelt down on one knee to get closer so he could read them(he doesn’t have the best eyesight; what he lacks in eyesight, he makes up for in smell because he's part wolf demon. But you can’t read words with your nose). He chuckles at each subsequent note and by the end is just outright laughing. "Hahaha! Damn, apparently there’s someone else here who's really got a sense of humor! Let’s see..." he looks at the notes again. "Name... S-Sans? That’s a strange name. How do you pronounce that? Sans(long a)? Sans(short a)? S... shmoopa. That’s his name. Shmoopa. Because his name is so short but weird to shay." He pauses, thinking about what he just said for a second. "...I mean say. Sometimes I can’t talk. Wow, I’m so great at words. How the hell did I become king of anything with talking skills like this?"

  
After examining the living room a bit, he walks over to the stairs and stares at them. "Hehe. Hey, I’m staring at ‘em. I bet they’re STAIRing back." He snaps and gives himself a wink. "Eyyyyy!" He chuckles to himself as he walks up the stairs and peeks into the first room. After seeing nothing in there that would likely kill him, he pushes the door completely open and steps inside. “Wow, okay, this room is very kid-like,” he comments as he frowns at the room. “I don’t like it. Kids are fucking annoying.” He closes his eye to focus for a few moments, trying to sense if there’s any spirits or living things in the room… He then blinks his eyes open. “Nothing here. Good. Was worried there was a kid or something hiding in here. Fucking hate kids…”  
He decides to not even waste any more time in this room because it’s making him feel very uncomfortable, so he walks over to the other room and tries the doorknob, but it’s locked. He smirks. “This must be the entrance to a SECRET LAB of EVIL!!” He lifts his knee and prepares to kick in the door, then in one swift motion he throws his foot out and breaks it down with a loud slam. He used his bloody foot, so the door now has a large red paw print splattered on it. Wolf looks back down the hall to see that he’s leaving bloody paw prints where he walks. “…You know what, I really don’t care.” He turns back to the room he broke into and takes a step inside, flicking on the light. He smiles upon seeing the room. “Niiiice! Now THIS is MUCH nicer!”  
He bounces happily into the messy room, admiring the beautiful piles of dirty clothes strewn around the unkempt room. He stands in the center, hands on his hips as he looks around. “This is the correct way to live. You know what, I’ll help fix up this room a bit.” He walks over to the closet, which has its doors already open, and grabs a few shirts and jackets that are hanging up, then turns around and plops them right onto the ground. “I’m helping.”

  
Ravina then rummages through the closet, looking for anything suspicious. He finds a cardboard box that says "don’t touch this" and decides to be a rebel and open it up. "Oh, wow, okay," he says upon seeing the contents of the box. He closes it back up and shoves it away. "Yeah, that’s kinda personal. Well, I don’t judge. Xeno likes that stuff too." He then stands back up and starts looking through the drawers of a dresser.

  
"What’s the name of the other one who lives here?" He asks himself aloud. "Sahn? San? Sans? Sands? Sanders? Bernie Sanders?" He chuckles, shaking off his crown as he picks up a pair of blue and yellow boxers from the drawer and places them on his head, his ears poking out the legs of it while he continues to search the drawers. "Okay, officially Bernie Sanders lives in this house." He pauses as he lifts up a silky light blue bra. "Oops I killed Bernie Sanders's roommate." He then shrugs and ties the bra around his neck, then returns to his search. "Well, I’m not in his party anyway. Because I don’t live in America. Or on Earth, for that matter. I’m in my own party. The rainbow party. Where everyone is at least partially gay for each other. That’s the best party. Also communism. And anarchy." He gathers up the contents of one drawer into a ball and throws it all on the ground to add to the chaos of the room. "Ravina-Wolf Kigami, Bringer of Anarchy. Huh. I like the sound of that, actually. I should start using that. I sound like a god. I kinda am, technically… but that’s complicated.” He closes one of the drawers harder than he intended to and accidentally broke it. “Wow, I’ve gone completely off topic talking to nobody, huh?"

  
He shrugs at the broken drawer and peeks into the one he hasn’t looked in yet to find a key hidden under a secret stash of ketchup and papers with puns on them. Ravina picks up the key and smiles his wolfish-toothy grin. “S e c r e t L a b O f E v i l !” He dramatically turns around and examines the room to find where the key could go. “There’s gotta be a hole around here for this to be thrust into! I purposefully made that sound sexual!” He narrows his eyes. “Because I COULD.” He bends his knees, then dramatically jumps across the room with a karate-like exclamation, landing in front of the unmade bed. He swings his leg back, then kicks the underside of the bed, flipping it onto its side with a loud bang. He shakes his foot a little. “Tingly paw. Tingly paw. Is this pain? Is that what pain feels like? I always forget what pain feels like since I barely ever feel it with my ridiculously high pain tolerance. Oh well.”

  
Wolf searches the floor under the bed, but... “Nothing. Hey, wait a second..." He doesn't find a secret lab entrance or anything, but he does find a certain scent. It's faint, but it's definitely there. "Xeno..." he says as he sniffs at the bed. "Yeah, that's definitely Xeno. Wow, actually…” He takes a big whiff of the scent. “Is that Xeno’s…? Wow, okay. Nice. Niiiice, buddy. Mad props. Respect to you, man.” He chuckles. “Oh yeah. He was here. Alive. Definitely alive. Very alive. That's a good sign... but I doubt I'd catch his scent once I go outside. The scent must be covered with the snow."

  
Deciding that it won't do him much good right now, he continues to search the room for anything else of interest. He eventually glances out the window and sees a small building outside behind the house. "Ooh, secret lab?" He takes Shadowspear and shatters the window, then jumps out and lands on the roof. He flaps his wings and floats down to the ground in front of the door, the snow helping to get most of the blood off his paw. "Suspicious!" He says excitedly as he inserts the key and opens the door.

  
Once he steps inside, he's brought to a stairway leading even farther underground. He blinks in surprise; he honestly wasn't expecting an ACTUAL secret lab. "Don't tell me..." He jumps down the entire staircase and lands in a small (well, what do you know!) secret lab room. Wolf snickers. "Wow, really? That 'secret lab' thing was a joke! Didn't think they'd actually have this!" He pauses, twitching his ears a couple times and noticing the underwear still on his head. "Oh right I left my crown in the room. I'll go back for it. But Imma look around here first." He pulls the bra off from around his neck and drops it to the floor, then snoops through the lab. In the drawers, he finds lots of complex blueprints and scientific research papers, most of which are a bit foreign to the wolf. "Determination... huh... SAVE and RESET powers? I like to think I'm pretty determined. Wonder if I could use that power." He shuffles through some more papers, finding something... much more familiar. "The multiverse...?" He picks up a blueprint for a machine that was apparently supposed to use "Determination" to allow someone to traverse the multiverse. "Wait, this seems familiar..." he says, closing his eyes in thought, then jumps and blinks his eyes open when he remembers. "Gaster! He mentioned this before! Was this his lab?" Wolf shuffles through a few more papers, finding something different. It's a blueprint and notes about a different machine, and the odd thing is he also finds a tiny sealed packet of stardust and a small glass container with a glowing purple fragment inside. It has a familiar scent to it. He reads the note and stares at it in shock. "Oh my god."

 

 

“Multiverse Borderline Breaker Machine(MBBM)”

Xeno told me about the method that he uses to traverse the multiverse earlier. It’s a technique called “Borderline Breaking” that’s done using a power called “Saikik.” It’s a very advanced Saikik technique that works by manipulating dark energy to literally break open a pathway through the dark matter of the Void in between universes. Upon doing some research, I learned that “Saikik” and “Magic” are indeed two different things. They’re similar, but definitely not the same. I tried my best to use just a simple Saikik technique on my own, but I just… couldn’t seem to pull it off. I learned that stardust apparently contains Saikik power, but there isn’t any stardust here in the Underground. Xeno said his mechanical wings are powered by stardust, so while he was asleep I drained his wings of the remaining dust inside so I could examine it. He said his wings are broken anyway, so he won’t notice that I took the dust.

I took just a few grains of it and tried ingesting it, then after a little while I attempted a basic Saikik attack. I created a small flame in my hand, but… I also burned by hand. And it was only for a split second before it fizzled out. Apparently Saikik is more complicated than just creating flames. Magic is much simpler, but I assume that Saikik is generally stronger. I mean, you travel the multiverse with it while you really can’t do that with magic, so yeah. It’s stronger. I wish Xeno would take just a little time to stay with me so I could ask him more about Saikik. The issue is… he can’t use Saikik in the Underground. I don’t know for sure, but there might be something in the ground here that is suppressing Saikik power… or perhaps it’s the barrier’s doing. If that’s the case, then attempting to use stardust to practice Saikik would be… kind of pointless, huh? It would be suppressed before I get anywhere close to learning Borderline Breaking.

But this machine… I’m gonna put all my effort in this machine. Using the limited amount of stardust I have, I’m gonna try and overpower that suppression. I don’t think I have enough stardust to succeed though, so… I needed something more. I… god, a part of me feels really bad about this, but I don’t know if he noticed. I don’t think he did. I made it look normal again afterwards. I took a piece from the center and closed up the wound, and the scar is covered up with LOVE. It looks normal. But I think I… oh god, I think I just made his mental state worse by accident. After I took it, he woke up traumatized after having a nightmare. I didn’t think I took that much of his SOUL to give him that bad side effects. But I think he’s been having more vivid visions and nightmares. I expected side effects, but… but this isn’t what I was expecting. I was hoping it would just be minor drowsiness and weakness, or maybe slight aches… but THIS is not what I wanted to see. I have to keep an eye on him… just in case his visions get worse. I did this to him… I just… god, why did I do that… I have to help him feel better now. Doesn’t matter what I have to say or do; I messed him up, so I have to accept the consequences.

But I have to focus. Just focus on the machine, Sans. Focus…

Okay… I took a piece of Xeno’s SOUL because he can use Saikik under normal circumstances and he’s from another universe. I hope that the SOUL fragment will create a link from here out to the multiverse and the stardust I have can tap into that link and break open the border. Maybe I would only be able to visit universes that Xeno’s been to, but that would still be a huge success. If I end up getting to the universe that Xeno lives in after he leaves and I see him in his home universe… heh heh. That would be pretty funny. He’d be so shocked. But I have to actually finish the machine. Easier said than done. Dad actually made this machine originally to be able to teleport outside the barrier. Needless to say, that failed. But if I make a few changes to it… He’d be so proud, wouldn’t he...

UPDATE: Just give up. It’s pointless to get yourself killed like that. You fucked up, Sans. You really fucked up.

 

 

Ravina stares in shock at the paper, then glances at the SOUL fragment and stardust packet. “Holy shit. Also, Xeno. XENO. What. The FUCK, man? What was the FIRST thing I told you about multiverse travel? Don’t. Tell. Them. You’re. A multiverse. Traveler! And what did you do the first chance you get? Tell literally everyone you meet that you’re not from their universe and even tell them about Saikik and Borderline Breaking. You’ll tell them literally ANYTHING if they ask nicely and even if they DON’T you STILL tell them because you can. Seriously, Xe. You are doing LITERALLY EVERYTHING I TOLD YOU NOT TO DO. EVER. AND YOU DOING IT. YOU DOING IT, XE.” He huffs dramatically and places the paper back down, then picks up the fragment container, rolling it around his palm. “Anyway… This is a piece of his SOUL?” He pauses, considering taking the fragment and stardust along with him, but ultimately places the container back down into the drawer. “I’m gonna regret leaving these here, but…” He voice trails off as he turns to a large machine in the room that is covered in a white sheet. “That’s the machine I guess.” He peeks under the sheet to see it, but there really isn’t much to it. It’s a large, complicated-looking machine, but that’s all. He runs his hand against the metal, then drops it back down and turns back to the last drawer he didn’t check. He opens it, finding a picture of three smiling skeletons. One appears to be the “Papyrus” that Wolf killed earlier, and another one looks almost like Gaster, but… no, that has to be Gaster. It’s odd to see him not as a blob of shade. The last skeleton is a short one who Wolf assumes to be this “Sans” guy.

  
“who are you?”

  
Wolf jumps at the voice and quickly turns around to see the chubby-looking skeleton himself standing at the bottom of the stairs and staring at him. He’s smiling, so… wolf assumes he doesn’t know that Papyrus is dead. _Are they brothers?_ Wolf thinks. _They’re probably brothers. Whoops. His bro’s dead. Oh well. Hopefully they didn’t get along._ Wolf gives Sans a little smile and waves. “Heyo, skeleton man,” he says. “I see you know Xeno, huh?” He walks over to Sans, looking down at him as he gives him a little pat on the head. “Just so you know, I don’t take too kindly to peeps who hurt Xe. Seems like it was an accident though, so I’ll let it slide this one time.” He chuckles, gripping at the sides of the skeleton’s skull, smirking maliciously down at him, seeing his white eye lights shrink down a bit. “If you know Xeno, then I bet you already know exactly who I am, don’t you?” He steps back and poses dramatically with Shadowspear. “The name’s Ravina-Wolf Kigami, Bringer of Anarchy!” He then droops his limbs and slouches over a bit. “But I’m a bit too lazy to bring any anarchy right now, so I won’t.” He gives Sans a wink. “Since I don’t feel like brutally murdering you right now, I’ll let you live to not see another day because you live Underground and can’t see the sky.”

  
Sans just stares at Wolf, smiling but otherwise having an unreadable expression. Wolf waits for a while, holding his winking pose and expecting some kind of response. When he doesn’t get one, he blinks both his eyes open and droops his ears back slightly. “Wow, you’re a tough crowd. But tough crowds are like bones; they don’t break often, but with a little pressure I can make ‘em snap!”

  
Wolf smiles expectingly at Sans, his blue eyes glittering in anticipation for the laughter he expects. But Sans just stares at him, his eyes narrowing slightly in discomfort. Wolf frowns. “Wow, okay. Do you even HAVE a sense of humor? Well, I like dark humor. Maybe you just ain’t into that. Dark humor’s like food; not everyone gets it.”

  
At that, Sans outright turns around and starts to leave. Wolf bounces after him. “Aww, come on man! Don’t be like that! Alright, I’ll admit. I stole that joke from a comic I read. I didn’t come up with it, but DAMN I love that joke. It’s great.” Wolf chuckles and shrugs. “Man, why ya gotta go KILL the mood like this? Hahaa!” Sans groans and continues leaving, making Wolf drop his limbs and hunch over with a deadpan look on his face. “Okay, wow, you’re boring as fuck. Fine, leave. I gotta get my crown from your room, by the way.” He pulls off the boxers on his head. “Do you want your underwear back? ‘Cuz I’ll keep ‘em if not.”

  
“ doesn’t matter,” Sans replies. Wolf sighs. “Stop being so fucking sad. You’re so emo, buddy. Just because you’re emo doesn’t mean ya gotta CUT all the fun outta MY life though!” He flies up the stairs and lands beside Sans, giving his shoulder a little nudge. “Eh? EH??” Sans turns to him, his eye lights completely gone now and just being black mini voids. Wolf lets out a puff of air in defeat. “Okay, okay. Just…” He bends over to pick up a clump of snow, then slaps it in the skeleton’s face. “CHILL out, buddy! Nyehehehe!”

  
Finally Wolf actually gets a chuckle out of Sans, his eye lights flickering back into existence. “heh heh… that’s better,” he says, wiping the snow off his face.

  
Ravina gives Sans a toothy smile, then steps away a bit. “So, I’d love to stick around and chat, but I’ve got a crossdressing sugar dick to find. You wouldn’t happen to know where he is now, would ya?”

  
Sans blinks in surprise for a moment, then glances away. “oh, you’re here for xeno. of course. right. well, see… you actually just missed him. he escaped. he’s back home now.” Wolf frowns and his eye twitches for a moment. “You’ve gotta be shitting me…” Wolf throws his arms up in rage. “THIS WAS POINTLESS?! WHY THE FUCK AM I HERE THEN?!” He looks up at the Underground ceiling and crosses his arms, sneering up at nothing. “Seriously, what the hell?! Why did this even…?!” He groans and looks back at Sans. “Okay, fine, whatever. Then I gotta head back. How do I get back through the barrier? Apparently it’s a one way thing, from the info I got from glossing over your notes in there.” He gestures to the lab. “I think it said I needed a monster SOUL and a human SOUL. Pretty sure my SOUL is human.” He pops out his rainbow-colored SOUL and holds it above his hand. “Looks pretty gay, but it’s a human SOUL I think.” He looks over at Sans, who is staring in shock at the rainbow SOUL. “wow, that’s… different,” he says. “never seen a rainbow soul before. heh heh… xe was right. you are a pretty colorful guy.” He looks over the SOUL a bit more, noticing lots of LOVE in it; there’s big clusters of the stuff imbedded deep inside it and parts of it speckled on the SOUL’s surface. Then there’s something else on it. Sans takes a few steps closer and looks at the odd black markings curiously. It looks kind of like LOVE, but not quite exactly. It’s some kind of thick black shadows with certain tar-like qualities. A small orb of it collects at the bottom of the SOUL and drops off onto the wolf’s hand. “uh, what’s that stuff on it?” He asks. Wolf shrugs. “Dunno. Think it’s the remnants of when I fused with Dr. Shade Lump on the way to this universe. Guess I’m stuck with him now.”

  
As Wolf looks over at Sans and recalls the things he saw in the lab, a realization starts to dawn on him… _Gaster was Sans’s dad, huh? Oh, well, shit._ Wolf considers telling Sans that his dad is now around here, but… honestly, Wolf would rather let Sans be surprised by his father’s return. Yeah, he looks a lot different, but he’s sure Gaster will want to come see his son eventually. Gaster IS kind of slow-moving since he’s a blob of shadows and he kind of has to slowly slide his melted mass of darkness around like an inchworm or drag himself across the ground to get anywhere. So, telling Sans now would just make him stress out wondering if his dad’s okay and when’s he gonna show up. _Let’s not fuck up him even more than he’s gonna be after he finds his dead bro’s dust in the kitchen and his blood all over their house,_ Wolf thinks as he puts his SOUL away. “So, I’ll just have to find a monster’s SOUL, right? Shouldn’t be too difficult.” He takes a breath, then turns his body slightly towards the broken window. “I’ll be grabbing my crown then and I’ll be off.” He gives Sans a wave. “Enjoy life, buddy!”

  
With that, the wolf spreads his wings and flies up and into the messy room. He drops the underwear to the ground and places his crown back on his head, adjusting it so it fits around his ears. “Okay, time to get the hell outta here before-”

  
“ PAPYRUS!!!”

  
Shit.

  
Ravina swiftly climbs out the window and flaps his wings, flying over the roof of the house and out of Snowdin Town. Once he’s safely out of the town, he plops himself down in the snow. He fixes his cape a bit, then lets out a little sigh of relief. “Well, maybe he’ll be cool with me ‘cuz I was nice to him at first? …Well, not that it really matters. He clearly ain’t tough. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and say he might be able to give me a bruise or two, but actually hurt me? Yeah, sure. He’s from a universe with a power level seven and I’m from PL eight point six. I’m clearly the stronger monster here.” With that, he swings his cape around as he turns to head into the caverns of Waterfall, his colors seemingly fading away as his body is engulfed in the shadows of the dark cavern.

 

**|\vvv/|**

 

This.

  
Fucking.

  
KID.

  
Wolf trudges angrily through the swamps of Waterfall, unable to enjoy the beautiful black and blue scenery with this stupid monster kid following him. He absolutely DESPISES children, but he does have SOME moral standards. He knows that killing children isn’t good because when they grow up they’ll realize how much of a fucking annoyance they were when they were young. But every time Wolf ditches the kid, they just come right back! If this kid keeps finding him after every single ditch he might turn around and just be RID of them.

  
“She’s gotta still be around here!” They ramble. “She’d NEVER leave us like this! She knows that we’re in danger, and maybe she just needs someone to help her! Even heroes need help sometimes, so I’m gonna save her!” And their stupid rant continues in that manner. Apparently, the kid has a thing for this warrior named Undyne who disappeared recently. Kid knows that all the adults that are still alive are cowering in fear from whatever villain is killing everyone, but Kid wants to be brave and go find Undyne to help them all. They insist that Undyne’s just hiding somewhere, just WAITING for her chance to make a heroic return and stop the genocidal maniac.

  
Wolf chuckles at the description “maniac” for him. Honestly, at this point, he’ll admit that there’s little reason for him to keep on killing things here, but most of the time the monsters themselves start the fight. He isn’t even chasing them down, really. It’s their own fault for approaching him. Also, he’s come this far, so might as well finish what he began. Besides, he’s gotta get a monster SOUL to leave the Underground, so he might as well keep on killing ‘till he can get one. Then maybe he’ll chill a bit.  
_But this KID!!_ Wolf’s eye twitches in utter rage, trying his damn best to keep himself in check. _Why won’t they just SHUT THE FUCK UP?!_ He taps a SAVE point(he learned how to use them pretty quickly), trying not to completely smash it out of pure anger at the kid. He doesn’t know the kid’s name, and quite frankly he doesn’t care. If they keep up this incessant TALKING, it won’t matter WHAT their name is because they’ll be DEAD.

  
Ravina walks onto a long wooden bridge over a large chasm and at that point he stops walking and lets out a low growl. Kid stops too and looks up at Wolf as he slowly turns around, his eyes shrouded in shadows as he glares down at the kid. “Kid, I swear to fuck, if you don’t shut the HELL up right fucking now I’ll END you right here and now. I am completely DONE with your shit. That Undyne you keep talking about? Clearly, she’s DEAD. I’m all for being hopeful, but you’re ANNOYINGLY hopeful, so just STOP.”

  
What neither of them notice is a melted hand shakily reaching up from the side of a cliff under the bridge. It weakly slaps down on a board beside the two, but they don’t notice at all. The expression on Kid’s face shifts to a teary-eyed one as if they’re about to cry and Wolf groans in annoyance, flipping his spear in his claws. “Kid, I fucking DARE you to cry right now. If I hear one little whimper coming from that asshole in your face I’ll plug it up with my spear to make you stop.”

  
A melted blob of fish struggles to claw its way onto the bridge, raising its distorted face to observe the scene about to unfold. Still, neither of them notice the monster slowly try and rise to what barely resembles its feet. Wolf raises his spear, baring his fangs with little drops of saliva shimmering on his sharpened teeth. A beam of light reflects off of the black metal of Shadowspear, shimmering onto the Wolf’s face and highlighting the murderous glimmer in his blue eyes. “You’re IN MY WAY!!” He roars with a growl, aiming his weapon at the kid, who has taken a step back but stumbled, now unable to hold back as a few tears slip out of their eyes. “Y-you’re… Th-th-the ki-iller…?!” Determination shines in the rotten fish monster’s broken eyes as Wolf lunges at the kid with his spear…

  
And Undyne swiftly takes the hit for the kid.

  
She lets out a roar of pain, pieces of her melted body dripping off her as she struggles to keep her body together with pure determination. Her entire right leg melts into a puddle of thick melted scales and blood, making her lose her balance and collapse on the ground. Kid’s eyes go wide at the sight, a look of complete trauma and horror on their face as they witness their idol melting and dying right before their eyes. “UNDYNE!!!” They scream, trying to scramble to their feet. Undyne shakily turns her head around to glare at Kid. “GET. AWAY. FROM. HERE. NOW!” Kid was about to protest, but a single glance at the Wolf’s expression makes them change their mind and quickly turn to run away, crying as they run home to hide.

  
Undyne breathes heavily, her body shaking and dripping as the determination courses through every fiber of her being. Wolf looks on in curiosity at her as she starts to turn to dust. “Wow, how noble of ya,” he sneers. “Well, you look like you were dying anyway, so guess you figured you could save a life before yours completely melts away.” He chuckles and shrugs, then taps his spear against the ground as he waits for her to dust completely, hoping perhaps he’d get a SOUL from this. Maybe only the toughest monsters have absorbable SOULs, and if that’s the case, this Undyne seems like she’d be perfect for it. She growls out as she claws at the wood of the bridge, holding back her roars in pain as she feels her body slowly turn to dust.  
“Deep, deep in my soul… there’s a burning feeling I can’t describe…” She growls through clenched teeth. She tries her best to pull herself back together, slowly feeling her body’s dusting slow to a halt. “A burning feeling that WON’T let me die…!” She wills her deformed body to re-fuse, the dust slowly condensing again into the melted body full of determination. She glares up at Wolf, the glimmering light of a spear of justice shining briefly in her eye. “I don’t care that I was careless in that one battle… I DON’T lose! I NEVER die!” She forces her body to slowly start to take shape again, the melted pieces of her beginning to smoothen out a bit as a smile creeps onto her face. “And THIS… THIS is more important than that fight! I failed one time… but this is not the end! I’ve heard of what you’ve done. The Underground is panicking because of you! Overnight, you’ve decided to waltz right in here and kill everyone you see! I can’t give up! If I do… if I do, I’ll have truly failed them all! So, Wolf…”

  
She slowly rises to her feet, her head held low as her shaky body stands before the wolf, a thin yellow ray of light crossing over her body and finalizing the reformation of her body. After it pulls her body back together, clad in a new suit of shimmering armor, she slowly raises her hand and light blue magic swirls around her palm, taking shape as a sharp spear as she raises her head, a big grin on her face as she glares at the wolf in determination.

  
“You’re gonna have to try a little harder than THAT!”

  
With a flash of light from her eyes, the world melts into black and white as the true heroine stands before the wolf, spear in hand and ready to defend the ones she loves. Ravina grips his own spear tightly, secretly hoping this will be an actual fight.

  
But it won’t. This world is too weak.

  
Wolf lunges at the heroine, who tries to dodge out of the way and only gets a little scratch on the arm of her armor. She then swipes green magic at Wolf’s SOUL and turns it green, boxing him in place while she raises her hand to summon a few slow arrows to be flung towards Wolf. Upon noticing that he’s suddenly boxed in, Wolf holds up his own spear to block the oncoming arrows. The first three clink off easily, then he gasps upon seeing a barrage of faster arrows flying towards him from all sides. He thinks fast and turns to block each one as they approach, but his reflexes don’t work fast enough and he gets hit by two of them. He grunts in pain as he feels the attack in his SOUL. “What the fuck…?!” He growls, feeling the box disappear for a moment and giving him an opening to attack. He quickly takes that chance and swings his spear at Undyne, aiming at her head but she ducks out of the way just in time.

  
Wolf grimaces as he finds himself boxed in again as another arrow barrage is shot towards him from the sides. He finds this one slightly easier to block, but it still comes at him fast. After the attack he needs to take a quick second to calm his heart rate just a little. He smirks, flipping his spear I’m excitement. “Now THIS is a fight!” He laughs. “Finally, a challenge! Come at me, bitch! Take your best shot! You can’t kill me!”

  
Undyne screams out as she focuses her magic, summoning a huge storm of arrows that all slowly creep in on Wolf. Seeing how slowly they’re approaching, Wolf snickers. “Really? That’s the best you’ve got?” He starts to block them one by one, the first few clinking off his spear easily. However, he got a bit too cocky and was shocked when he found himself slightly disoriented by the sheer number of arrows aimed at him. Once one hits him, he finds himself start to lose his focus and starts turning around randomly and hoping he’s facing the direction of the next one to come. He was wrong a couple times, getting hit by at least three arrows in his flailing. He growls and grits his teeth, starting to actually feel pain from the attacks. He sees blood dripping from little wounds on his body, shocked that he’s actually taking so much damage in this fight.

  
He considers turning into his human form for this fight, since his eyesight is better in that form. But he figures he doesn’t need it. One good hit should end her, after all. At the first chance he gets, he summons all his strength to land one good hit at Undyne, cutting through her armor…

  
But she refused to die.

  
The metal made a wound, but through determination she managed to close it right up again. Wolf’s expression falters for a moment as he watches a Undyne snicker at him and return his SOUL to its usual rainbow.

  
“Didn’t you hear me before?” She spits. “You’re gonna have to try MUCH harder if you wanna take ME down!”

  
Ravina grimaces, watching intently as a barrage of spears twirl into existence and one by one are shot towards him. He strafes out of the way as each one approaches him from different directions, unable to predict where the next one is going to come from. Nonetheless, that attack really isn’t so bad.

  
After the attack slows down, he immediately jumps at Undyne and jabs his spear at her, stabbing her but not doing enough. She jumps back and heals herself again, raising her spear to the sky heroically. Ravina glances down once he sees a little white light appearing in the ground. Small white patches of light are dotting the scene, and Ravina steps off of the ground where the lights are before any of the spears pop out of the ground and impale him. When another light appears beneath him, he simply moves out of the way again. Overall, this attack doesn’t seem to bad either.

  
Wolf prepares his spear again and slashes at Undyne, who blocks the attack with her own, then shoves him back with a roar, turning his SOUL to green and boxing him in again. Wolf groans as he watches as both slow and fast-moving arrows are flung towards him. The mixture of fast and slow disorients him and he slips up a couple times, letting out little grunts in pain as a couple arrows pierce his SOUL. He winces in pain, gripping at the new wounds forming on his body.

  
But this isn’t the end for him. This is giving him such a rush! It’s just so intense and EXCITING! He tries to catch his breath as best he can and prepares his spear to defend. What a great time! A battle with a true hero! He grins widely, his eyes shimmering with anticipation and possible madness as he blocks the next barrage perfectly, despite it being by far the quickest attack yet. He had to think fast and use lightning-quick reflexes to block THAT attack. After the attack ends, he chuckles at the heroine.

  
“Wow, this sure is FUN!” He exclaims, shaking in excitement and probably pain too. “Keep ‘em coming, mother fucker! I can do this all day! I barely even FEEL this!” He pokes his claw into one of his wounds to prove his point. Despite his words, he actually DOES feel it. But the adrenaline pumping through his veins is much more powerful than the pain.

  
Undyne sneers at the wolf demon’s cockiness, summoning another arrow attack. “That attitude’s gonna get you killed tonight, Wolf.”

  
She sends the arrows hurling towards Wolf, who blocks the first few fine but once the arrows start flipping around to hit him from a different direction than they’re coming from he gets tripped up and is hit a few times. He groans in pain, but sucks it up as he sees his SOUL return to normal. He holds up his spear and runs at Undyne, laughing maniacally with his spear held high.

  
Undyne slips out of the way as Shadowspear is thrust towards her, then Wolf finds himself surrounded by a ring of spears twirling around him and slowly closing in on him. He snickers and tries to sneak through the little opening between them. However, he gets cut on the edge of one and stumbles straight into another one. He sucks in a pained breath as he sees a few more spears surround him. He narrowly dodges them, but one impales him from behind, his eyes going wide and his body going limp as his SOUL breaks in half, the world going black. He sucks in a shocked breath as he collapses on the invisible ground, his SOUL shattering into a million multicolored fragments.

  
As he feels himself start to float in the darkness, he just stays there motionless, his eyes wide and his smile completely wiped off his face. “I… lost…?” He whispers to himself in awe. “H… how…? Why? WHY?!”

  
He raises his head, staring around the darkness. “I lost to someone from… from… from a WEAKER universe?! Are you KIDDING me?!” All his cockiness was completely wiped away after his defeat. He glares in rage at the “CONTINUE” and “RESET” buttons that appear before him. He immediately smashes his fist down on the “CONTINUE” button, the world breaking back into color as he finds himself standing outside the doorway to the bridge he died on before. He narrows his eyes, hearing the kid behind him talking again. “So that’s how this SAVE power works, huh?” He glances at the kid, growling quietly as he enters the bridge room again.

  
Once he’s on the bridge again, he stops and turns to the kid. “You. Get the FUCK away from me NOW. I don’t wanna tell you again.” He then turns to the place where Undyne crawled up from. “And YOU. UNDYNE.” He spits her name. “Get your stupid melty-ass up here and fight me.”

  
A chuckle is heard from below the bridge as Undyne’s melted hand claws at the bridge to climb up. Once she’s atop the bridge, she drags her gooey body into the center of the bridge, a big distorted grin on her face as she clenches her fist, trying to fix her body once again. “You sniffed me out already, huh?”

  
Wolf chuckles, readying his weapon. “Smells like an old fish outta water,” he says tauntingly. “And I’ll have you know I love sushi, so get ready to be chopped up ‘cuz the big bad Wolf’s here to blow you away!”

  
Undyne’s body starts to reform as the yellow light runs across her form, her eye shimmering in determination as she summons her spear. “You’re gonna have to try a little harder than THAT if you wanna scare me!”

  
The battle commences and Wolf blocks the first few barrages decently fine. He slips up a few times, but does better than last time. The slow arrows are oddly the most difficult because they’re so disorienting to the wolf. He rushes towards Undyne first chance he gets and stabs her through the chest, but she just reforms again afterwards. Wolf grimaces at the sight as he jumps and flies around the spears being shot at him. _Is she invincible or something?!_ He exclaims in his mind. _She just won’t DIE!_

  
He blocks the arrow attacks again, doing fine on the first couple attacks but being bombarded on the yellow arrow attack. “Those lying mother fucking yellow arrows!” He growls, gripping at his wounds as he braces himself for the next attack: the spear spirals. He grips Shadowspear tightly, slipping in between the first couple rings fine but due to the unpredictability he stumbles into another one after dodging the first few. He growls in pain, accidentally falling into another one and getting knocked to the ground, where an entire ring collapses in on him, sending him back to the darkness as his SOUL shatters into glimmering shards once again.

  
Wolf lets out a groan in pain, then it turns into a howl of fury as he rises to stand on all fours, roaring out to the darkness like an actual wolf. He claws at the darkness in anger, sparks of madness in his eyes. “HOW?! AGAIN?! THE SAME DAMN ATTACK!! DID I LEARN NOTHING AT ALL FROM THE FIRST TIME?!” He smashes the continue button and runs onto the bridge on all fours, an animalistic hunger in his eyes and his lips rolled back to show off his sharp teeth and fangs. “GET UP HERE, YOU STUPID FISH BITCH!”

  
Third time, he died again.

  
Fourth time, he died.

  
Fifth time…

  
Sixth…

  
Dead. He floats in the darkness, a grave look of resentment on his face. “Even after six attempts,” he spits. “Why won’t she just DIE? I’m getting sick and tired of that sushi’s shit.” He slams the continue button, really wanting to take a break but is determined to destroy that fish monster. He squeezes his spear tightly in anxiety as he steps back into the bridge room and calls out to the fish. Once again, she crawls onto the bridge and reforms herself, taunting him once again with her statement “you’re gonna have to try a little harder than THAT!” Wolf’s eye twitches in frustration every time he hears her say that. At this point, he doesn’t even have a comeback to it. He IS trying his best. But he has to admit, she’s tough. Real tough.  
A smirk finally returns to Wolf’s face as he blocks the arrow attacks and his SOUL turns back to rainbow. “Gotta admit; it’s kinda hot, actually.” He flaps his wings and zooms around the spears spiraling around him, clipping a couple but otherwise doing much better than before. He does a fancy little flip and lands on the ground again, placing his weapon on his back for a moment as he stands on all fours, thinking that perhaps it would be smarter to just out-determine her rather than try and fight. It’s still a valid way to win, if it works.

 

The wind is howling loudly as Wolf nimbly bounces around the spinning spears. They clank against the wooden floor beneath them as they miss the wolf, making a new idea pop into his head. “Or…” He starts to jump towards the bridge ends, but is stopped when his SOUL is turned green and he gets trapped in place. He mutters some impatient curses under his breath as he holds up his spear to block the oncoming arrows. The sound of magic arrows clinking off his weapon echoes a haunting melody throughout the quiet caverns as Undyne spits out a few quiet words.

  
“I don’t understand you,” she growls, pausing for just a moment to prepare her next magic attack. Wolf takes that attempt to use Saikik; if he can just use Saikik for a short moment it would be enough to destroy the bridge and make Undyne fall into the abyss of darkness and sharp stalagmites below. He focuses some white energy in his hands, managing to create a tiny burst of stardust in his palms but not much. The power is quickly cut off before he could create a decent amount. He grimaces, holding up his spear to block the next attack directed at him. “Just that…” he growls to himself as he flawlessly blocks the arrows. “That should be just enough if I do it right…”

  
Undyne doesn’t give Wolf a chance to try, however, immediately turning his SOUL rainbow again and sending a barrage of spears at the wolf. He jumps and rolls out of the way, having to speed up and run through them to get out of the line of fire. He flies up a bit, zipping around between the spears homing in on him. As he zigzags about in the sky, dodging Undyne’s spears, he concentrates a thick mass of red energy around his palms. It gets cut off, yes, but if he can get just a small portion of the attack off…

  
Wolf flips around in the air, then glares down at Undyne, his eyes shimmering with red energy for a moment as he bares his fangs and holds out his palms, condensing the Saikik attack and sending out a sudden Fireblaze at Undyne. “HELL’S GONNA GET SOME GRILLED SALMON TONIGHT, YOU FUCKER FISH!!” He laughs maniacally as the flames engulf Undyne. The attack was suppressed, but a part of the attack still hit her head on despite it. She screams out in agony, falling to her knees as she starts to melt again like a candle. Wolf slowly descends to hover above the bridge which is starting to burn as well. He chuckles, his cockiness returning once again as he crosses his arms. “Oh, well, would ya lookit that,” he says teasingly. “Looks like that ‘burning feeling’ that wouldn’t let you die before finally turned on ya, huh?” He laughs in joyous malice, watching with delirious happiness as the heroine’s burning determination fails her. She claws at the wooden boards of the bridge, her body melting away again as she tries desperately to cling to life.

  
“NO!!” She screeches in distress, her voice gargled as she chokes on melted pieces of her own body. “I… CAN’T… LOSE…! THEY WERE… ALL… COUNTING ON ME…! THIS IS NOT… THE… END…! I C-CAN STILL… FIGHT…!” She tries to pick up her spear, but each time it just slips right through her gooey fingers. Pieces of the burning bridge start to break off and rain embers down into the abyss below, Undyne’s liquefying body slowly starting to seep through as she clings desperately to determination. Her one “good” eye, half blinded due to being covered up by her drooping scales, darts up to stare at the devilish smirk on Wolf’s face through the flames. The light of the flames illuminates his vile and wicked form, his teeth and eyes glimmering like red crystals. “You are pretty hot though, Undyne,” he teases as he flies over to Undyne, cupping her gooey cheek and letting his red tongue roll out of his mouth. “I’ll give you that.” He gives Undyne a long, slow lick, gathering a clump of her melted flesh and blood on his tongue that he eagerly slurps up. He smirks down at Undyne, who weakly swipes at him and makes him move back a bit, the red from the flames and his tongue giving even his saliva a reddish tint to it as if he has blood dripping from his maw.

  
The bridge starts to break apart even more, Undyne’s entire lower half of her body dangling off the edge and slowly being tugged down by gravity. Her lower torso stretches out and pinches in on itself, eventually detaching from her upper body entirely and her lower half turning into blobs of melted fish as it falls to the abyss and turns to dust. Undyne cries out in pain, able to feel everything in her body as it breaks apart and distorts itself in a futile attempt to reform.

  
“W H Y . . . ? !” She cries, The remaining pieces of her body slipping through the burning boards and turning to dust as they drip off her. “I JUST… WANTED… TO… TO K… KEEP… HOPE… A L I V E . . . ! I… I… WON’T… D I E . . . !”

  
She raises her shaking hand to Wolf, but it melts off her arm and splatters on the wood, mushing into just a pile of goo that turns to dust.

  
“I… WON’T… DIE…!” She uses her other hand to painfully drag her remaining body desperately through the flames, leaving a trail of melting flesh, blood and dust in her wake. She slowly crawls towards Wolf.

  
“I… W O N ‘ T . . . D I E . . . !” She tries dragging herself farther, but her entire arm detaches from her shoulder(or what could very loosely be described as one), making her liquid-like mass of flesh and blood that was once her body collapse in place, unable to move any father. She continues to scream out, despite her entire body being nothing more than a disgusting mess.  
“I W O N ‘ T D I E ! !” She screeches out before the bridge finally collapses completely, her body breaking apart and ultimately turning to dust.

  
“I

W  
O  
N  
‘  
T

D  
I  
E  
!”

  
Splat!

  
Melted fish juice covers the stalagmites below, but only for a moment before the juice turns to dust and blows along the bottom of the cavern in the howling wind. Wolf stares down at the dust, a feeling of euphoria coming onto him. “No, I won’t die.”

  
Meanwhile, in the room just before the burned bridge, a golden flower looks over the scene with a devious grin on his face.


	9. The Shortest Distance Between Two Souls is an Emotion ~ More than a Monster

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: I named this chapter after two of my poems titled… well, you can see the titles. The poems themselves have nothing to do with this story, but I felt that the titles fit really well and gives this chapter extra meaning (at least for me, that is, as the author of those poems)
> 
> ...Also I have a love/hate relationship with Sans and that comes out in this chapter just a bit

The clicking of bloodstained claws against the metal ground of the CORE echoes throughout the now-empty place, dust and blood littered all over the rooms of brightly-colored metal.

  
Yes, he killed them all. No, it doesn’t bother him at all that he murdered a bunch of probably-innocent monsters in cold blood. He’s already dug himself a deep hole; might as well keep on digging ‘till he’s safely broken into damnation. He taps a SAVE point with his tail, then walks into the final room of the CORE, his posture commanding respect and reverence. He steps up onto a raised platform, being met by a robotic rectangle with arms, a microphone in his hand.

  
“WELL WELL WELL,” Mettaton says into his microphone. “LOOKS LIKE YOU’VE MADE QUITE THE NAME FOR YOURSELF. TOO BAD THERE’S NO ONE LEFT TO CALL YOU BY THAT NAME.” Wolf shrugs.

  
“Hey, I swear I’m not really a bad guy,” he defends lazily. “Sometimes. But see, I’ve come this far already. I’ve got a reputation to keep up now. Honestly, I don’t have anything against any of you. I’m just doing it... because I wanna finish what I started. And because I CAN. I'm already damned to an afterlife of misery anyway even if we don’t count what I’ve done here. There’s not much more I can add to make it worse, so... why not, right?" He twirls his spear around his hand and taps the end of it on the ground. "No hard feelings, buddy. Ready?"

  
Mettaton drops his microphone onto the ground and lets it roll away. "TRULY, THIS IS A HORRIBLE TURN OF EVENTS. WHAT A TERRIBLE PLOT TWIST..." He rolls back slightly, preparing to transform into his new form. “BUT I, METTATON, THE UNDERGROUND’S LAST BEAUTIFUL RAY OF HOPE, WILL PUT AN END TO YOU. AND THAT ISN’T JUST FOR SHOW. PREPARE TO WITNESS...”

  
He bounces up and, with a sudden flash of pink light, Mettaton NEO appears and slams down onto the ground. He looks over at Wolf, a pink glimmer in his eye as the world turns into the black and white battlefield. “The power of NEO!”

  
Clang!

  
The sudden sound of metal slicing through metal echoes in the dark scene as Shadowspear cuts Mettaton NEO in two across the heart shape of his torso. Mettaton locks up, unable to move as his upper and lower halves separate from one another, then falls to his knees while the rest of him crashes to the ground. “O h M y . . .” He says, completely in awe of the wolf standing before him and looking down at his broken body. “You... are truly a... a real monster, aren’t y o u . . . ?”

  
The lights on his body flicker out and his voice fades into silence as the color returns after the (what could barely be described as a) battle. Wolf blinks in shock at the death, feeling legitimately disappointed. “Wow, really?” He mumbles. “I was still expecting a fight… but okay. One step closer to escape, I guess.” He returns his weapon to his back and steps over the broken robot, walking down a long empty hallway towards an elevator. As he walks down the corridor, he stares up at the ceiling in thought, grinning to himself at the memories of his actions.

  
It’s all a matter of pride at this point. He doesn’t care about their lives or their feelings or whatever. If he lets himself give up and turn back now, it’d completely shatter his pride. And, of course, it’s always fun to bring a little anarchy and watch the world burn… Just pissing off people you dislike can bring so much joy to life. He glances up at the Sky for a moment as he thinks that.

  
Finally, Wolf steps inside the elevator and rises to the top, then emerges from the shadows and looks over the color-drained scenery of New Home. He smirks at the boringly monochrome scene, thinking it could use just a bit more red at least, then turns to walk down the long empty pathway, his paws tapping against the ground as he makes his way towards Asgore's throne room. His cape flows seamlessly behind him and his rainbow tail drags along the ground, leaving a speckled trail of dust behind him as he walks. The lights of New Home, now few and far between after the genocide that has already befallen the underground, cast small and concentrated beams of light that reflect off of his red and golden crown.

  
He eventually pauses to look out once again over the now-soulless underground, the desolate wind blowing through his brown fur as he stretches his large white ironically-angelic wings. He stares, almost grimly, at the darkness speckled with dust and the minuscule random patches of light.

  
Anyone who didn't really know the wolf demon would assume he felt absolutely zero compassion or regret at all for what he’s done, but in reality he truly does feel bad for it all, SOMEWHERE deep in his soul. He knows he probably could have done this without any deaths, but interestingly, he finds himself with some... truly morbid curiosity and satisfaction, as if something in his mind is blocking his conscience from making him feel regret and pity for these monsters. He could have made friends with them, perhaps... but this seems more interesting anyway. Truthfully, in a way... he finds the darkness and dust beautiful. As he stares off into the distance and a crooked smile creeps onto his face, Flowey pops out of the ground beside him and smiles.

  
“Howdy, Wolfie!" He says. "You finally made it home.”

 

**~*^^*~**

 

Xeno's fingers tap impatiently against the tiles as he sits on the roof of Distamna, on a mostly-flat part that he and Ravina like to sit on because it overlooks a large part of the city and has a nice visual of the mountains in the distance. It’s starting to turn to night as the sky gains a reddish-purple hue to it while Xeno stares at his phone, hopeful that he'll get a call or a text or something from Wolfie to indicate his arrival home. But it’s been a few hours now, so...

  
What’s taking him so long?

  
"Where IS he?" Xeno asks himself out loud, poking his phone thinking he maybe just missed the notification, but as expected, nothing. "I know Pyro said he's off on a MCIF thingie, but... he SHOULD be back by now." He closes his eyes to think for a moment, then frowns as his eyes blink open. "I bet he's still looking for me. I mean, the only place I could imaging that he'd be..."

  
He stands up and shoves his phone back into his symbol, then takes a deep breath and breaks open a pathway to the Starnight Universe, where Xeno typically winds up when he disappears. He plops himself down on the cold, dusty ground and looks around the wasteland, feeling a shudder going down his spine as he slowly walks through the emptiness. "I hate this place..."

  
After walking for a little while, he spreads his new mechanical wings(while he was waiting for Wolf, he went to get new ones made for him) and hops into the sky, looking over the ground below for any signs of the wolf.

  
Eventually, after the sun has completely set over the horizon, Xeno finally comes across the only two monsters he half did and half didn’t want to see. He narrows his eyes and grimaces once he sees them sitting beside a lone rock with a newly-murdered corpse before them. "Oh, great..." he groans sarcastically as he lowers himself to the ground a safe distance away from them.

  
Geno stuffs his hands into a giant wound ripped open in the human's stomach and searches around inside, the slimy sound of bloody guts and bones being sloshed around inside the corpse seeming much louder than Xeno feels comfortable with, even being so far away. Geno pulls some kind of blood-soaked and mutilated organ out of the human's body; it’s too mangled to tell what it’s supposed to be, and Xeno's a bit too far to see clearly. Geno offers it to Nosa. "Want a bite?" Nosa eagerly reaches for the organ, but Geno pulls it away at the last moment with an ugly and loud laugh. "Well, too bad!" He says teasingly. "You won't starve to death if I deny you food for one more day. You’ll get food tomorrow." He opens his mouth, his broken teeth and fangs shimmering with bloody saliva as he stuffs the entire thing in his mouth, chewing up it loudly and letting tiny pieces of it drip from his jaw. After he swallows it down, he swipes the tiny morsels that fell out of his mouth towards Nosa. "But I guess you can get the crumbs. And the bones."

  
"I’m not strong enough to chew up a bone," Nosa says quietly as he weakly picks up the crumbs Geno generously allowed him to have. "But... thank you anyway..." Geno chuckles as he tears out some intestines from the corpse. "Skrehehe... well, isn’t that too fucking bad! Guess you get ONLY the crumbs then. Better enjoy them, you pathetic little rat shit."

  
Xeno growls and crosses his arms at the scene; he should have expected to come across this kind of thing. “G, can you just STOP?” He says, glaring at him. “You make me sick.”

  
Geno’s Head snaps up at the sound of Xeno’s voice, a huge bloody grin on his face. “Xeno!” He exclaims excitedly. “You’re back! Good to see you again, babe!” He bounces to his feet and places his hands on his hips, looking over at Xeno. “You’re back real soon, huh? Skrehehe! Finally ready to admit it, Xe? Admit that you’re just like us? Just like ME?” He licks his lips as he hops over the corpse, his hands held up in front of him as if about to reach out to grab at Xeno. “You made me like this, y’know! YOU started all this shit! Stop trying to pretend you don’t belong here with me! You are a part of this monster you created!”

  
Suddenly, Xeno pulls some orange energy into his foot and hands, then slams his foot to the ground and sends out a burst of the energy in a line directed towards Geno, wiping the monster’s smirk off his face for a moment in shock. He screeches in surprise and jumps up, summoning his wings and floating just above the ground as the energy breaks open a Saikik Fissure in the ground that the corpse falls into. Geno hisses in annoyance at the loss of his most recent kill and glares at Xeno. “Since when did YOU- skre?!” His comment is cut off when Xeno raises his palm up a bit, directing the energy in the ground to create Saikik Thorn Whips to protrude from the dust and snap tightly around Geno’s limbs and body, holding him firmly in place. Xeno clenches his fist tightly, making the thorny vines pull forcefully against Geno’s body, causing him immense pain so that he cries out in a hiss. Xeno then relaxes his fingers, but keeps the vines wrapped securely around the monster, who is breathing heavily as the pain causes adrenaline to pump through his veins and a masochistic smirk to creep onto his face. “Well shit, babe,” he chuckles. “Didn’t think you had it in ya. I’m impressed; I gotta admit it. C’mon, keep it coming. You know I can break outta this whenever the hell I feel like it. So go ahead; torture me. I fucking LOVE the feeling of misery!”

  
“Will you just shut the fuck up and let me SPEAK?!” Xeno roars in hatred. “I’m VERY aware I can’t kill you. I just came here to find Wolfie, so would you just skip the fucking yandere masochist serial killer bullshit and tell me if you’ve seen him?” Geno chuckles, shrugging as best he can in the binds. “Oh shit, look how the tables have turned, huh? Isn’t it usually the other way around? You disappear to do whatever the fuck you think you can accomplish by coming here and Wolf has to come here and ‘save’ your sorry ass from me?” He roars with laughter, making Xeno really want to strangle him more but knowing all too well Geno would just enjoy it.

  
“Fine, I’ll tell ya what I know,” Geno spits. “But it ain’t much. Your Wolf buddy DID come here looking for ya, but he ain’t here now. Haven’t seen him since. But perhaps he sniffed out where you’d gone and he’s over there looking for ya. I think you should check back where you just were, babe. You just might find him looking for your sweet little ass there.”

  
Xeno groans in annoyance at Geno’s tone; he’s starting to get a headache out of anger here. He swipes his hand downwards, making the vines suddenly snap Geno down into the fissure, tossing him into the depths of dust. He claps his hands together, making the fissure slam shut in what Xeno knows is a futile attempt to just get rid of the monster. “Okay, I am COMPLETELY done with this place now.”

  
As he turns to leave, he jumps at the sound of Geno busting right through the ground, wings spread out wide, claws and fangs extended, and his tongue hanging out of his mouth. A small red crystal shard glimmers in his right eye as he snaps up his hand, a dark red energy crystallizing in his palms. “You WaNNa FiGHT oR SoMeTHiNG, BiTCH?!” He roars in a crazed voice, an insane smirk on his face. “‘CuZ iF THaT’S WHaT You WaNT, i’D Be FuCKiNG eCSTaTiC To oBLiGe!!”

  
Xeno jumps and breaks open a pathway home quickly. “OKAY NOT CONFIDENT ANYMORE NOT CONFIDENT ANYMORE OH FUCK OH GOD!!!” He swiftly hops into the pathway and shuts it just before the storm of red crystals could collide with him or his pathway.

  
Xeno gets spat out on the ground atop Mt. Ebott, landing face down in the dirt. “Fucking hell…” He groans as he sits up onto his knees. “Okay, did I go home or…?” He looks around, his antennae drooping slightly as he sees the hole in the ground that he fell into almost a week ago. “…Oh. I’m here again.”

  
As he stands up and dusts himself off, he jumps as something gives his skirt a little tug. Xeno squeaks and hops away slightly, turning around to see what it was. “WHO ARE YOU?!” He exclaims, just as jumpy as ever again. He blinks in surprise and confusion at the sight of a black blob-like creature with white hands with holes in them and a cracked face. His two pinprick eye lights are staring up at Xeno as he lays on the ground, an unreadable blank expression on his face. “Uh, hi,” Xeno says quietly, playing with his hair a bit. “I’m Xeno. I’m from another universe, so… I don’t know what you are. Please don’t kill me…”

  
The blob opens his mouth and attempts to form words as best as possible. “Ga… ghaastah… meh… mai na-aahme… is Gastaaaah…”

  
Xeno pauses for a moment so he can try and make out what he said. “…Gaster? Your name is Gaster?” Gaster nods and smiles at the fact that Xeno understood him. Xeno squats down in front of him and gives him a kind little pat on the head. “Well, hi, Gaster! I’m Xeno! Wait, I already said that, didn’t I? Oops.” He blushes in slight embarrassment. “Sorry. I’m kinda awkward sometimes… So, uh… did you want me for something?” He then raises his antennae and smiles. “Oh! And did you happen to see a rainbow wolf come by here? I’m looking for him.”

  
Gaster nods as he opens his mouth to speak, but pauses and frowns when he realizes it’ll be hard to say for him. He looks around for something to write or type on, then holds out his hand and says “f-fone…?” Xeno hesitates, confused for a moment, then takes out his phone and hands it to Gaster after unlocking it. “I mean, sure. You, uh, you need to make a phone call first or something?”

  
Gaster takes the phone and his eyes go wide for a moment as if he’s surprised. He taps the screen a few times, looking at a few different things and glancing up at Xeno once in a while. Then he finally gets to an app that he can type on and starts to tap away at the screen. After a little while, he hands the phone back to Xeno who looks at the words on the screen. He blushes at the first sentence.

  
“WOW, YOU’RE REALLY KIND OF A FREAK, AREN’T YOU?”

  
Xeno looks down at Gaster, who is smiling up at him attempting to make it seem like he’s not guilty of looking through all of Xeno’s personal stuff. “Don’t JUDGE me, blob man. You’re a blob man. You really shouldn’t be judging.” Gaster shrugs and Xeno goes back to read the rest of what he typed. He frowns for a moment. “Damn, that’s a long message. But okay, lemme read.”

  
“ANYWAY… I DID SEE YOUR FRIEND EARLIER. IT’S A LONG STORY, BUT HE ACTUALLY HELPED ME GET HERE. I BELIEVE HE WENT INTO THE UNDERGROUND AFTER WE PARTED WAYS. GOOD LUCK IF YOU DECIDE TO HEAD DOWN THERE. I️ SAY THAT NOT BECAUSE THE MONSTERS ARE NECESSARILY DANGEROUS, BUT BECAUSE NATURE ITSELF IS. YOU AND HIM ARE FROM ANOTHER UNIVERSE… YOU DON’T BELONG HERE. THE MORE YOU INFLUENCE THIS UNIVERSE, THE MORE UNSTABLE THE SUPERNATURAL POWERS THAT REIGN IN THE UNDERGROUND BECOMES. IT WOULDN’T BE SUCH A BIG DEAL IF THERE WASN’T THAT BARRIER THAT KEEPS EVERYTHING TRAPPED DOWN THERE.

  
YOU SEE, THAT BARRIER… IT SEALS UP ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING DOWN THERE, INCLUDING MAGIC AND WHAT YOU CALL SAIKIK. YOUR SAIKIK DOESN’T NATURALLY APPEAR IN THIS UNIVERSE, SO WHEN YOU TWO, WHO ARE FAIRLY COMPETENT IN THAT AND EXUDE LOTS OF SAIKIK ENERGY, GO DOWN TO THE UNDERGROUND, THE SAIKIK ENERGY YOU EXUDE GETS SUPPRESSED BY THE BARRIER AND ENDS UP TRAPPED DOWN THERE. IT HAS NOWHERE TO GO AFTER IT LEAVES YOU. THE BARRIER HAS A BUILT-IN WAY TO KEEP MONSTER’S MAGICS REGULATED; IT HAS WAYS OF CIRCULATING IT OUT OF THE UNDERGROUND SO THE PLACE DOESN’T JUST OVERFLOW WITH DEAD MAGIC. BUT SAIKIK… IT DOESN’T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH SAIKIK. SO WITH THE INTERFERENCE OF BEINGS THAT DON’T NATURALLY APPEAR IN THIS UNIVERSE AND THE PRESENCE OF A NEW TYPE OF ENERGY THAT TECHNICALLY SHOULDN’T EXIST THERE, IT’S POSSIBLE THAT CERTAN…ISSUES COULD ARISE IF YOU BOTH ARE DOWN THERE FOR TOO LONG. ALTHOUGH, I️ DO WONDER WHAT EFFECT AN OVERABUNDANCE OF SAKIK ENERGY WOULD DO ON THE BARRIER… IT ISN’T SAFE TO TEST IT OUT. IT COULD BREAK THE BARRIER BECAUSE IT CAN’T HOLD BACK THE ENERGY, OR IT COULD JUST SUFFOCATE AND TURN EVERY MONSTER IN THE UNDERGROUND TO DUST. IT’S NOT WORTH THE RISK.

  
BUT I️ KNOW YOU WANT TO FIND YOUR FRIEND, AND I️ FULLY ENCOURAGE THAT. I️ DON’T MEAN TO SCARE YOU; I️ JUST FEEL THAT THIS IS SOMETHING YOU SHOULD KNOW SO THAT YOU CAN BE CAREFUL. I️ JUST LEARNED ALL THIS MYSELF, YOU SEE, THROUGH STUDYING THE BARRIER FROM HERE OUTSIDE IT. AS LONG AS THE BALANCE BETWEEN YOUR SAIKIKS AND MONSTER MAGIC ISN’T THROWN OFF SOMEHOW, LIKE, SAY, IF A LARGE PORTION OF MONSTERS WERE TO DIE SUDDENLY, THEN THINGS SHOULD BE RELATIVELY SAFE FOR BOTH OF YOU TO EXIST DOWN THERE FOR A WHILE.”

  
“OKAY WOW,” Xeno exclaims before finishing the entire message. “APPARENTLY I’M DESTROYING THE UNIVERSE BY JUST BEING HERE. I’M SORRY I️ DIDN’T KNOW THAT!! Wow, I️ mean… I️ didn’t think of that. Saikik energy doesn’t exist here naturally… but Sans said he wanted to try and learn it… is it possible for him to learn it if he’s not from a universe that naturally has it…?” He looks at Gaster, who is staring up at him with a shocked expression. “Y-you… kna… na…” He glances at the phone, then back at Xeno with a hopeful look in his eyes, almost as if pleading. Xeno blinks, then looks back at the note. “Oh, uh, I️ didn’t finish reading it, so… lemme… do that… gimme a sec…”

  
“IF YOU DO CHOOSE TO FOLLOW HIM, HOWEVER… WOULD YOU BE WILLING TO DO BE A BIG FAVOR? I️ KNOW THIS IS COMPLETELY OFF TOPIC, BUT… THERE’S TWO SKELETONS LIVING DOWN THERE. SANS AND PAPYRUS. IF YOU COME ACROSS THEM, WOULD YOU KINDLY TELL THEM THAT THEIR DAD SAYS HE LOVES AND MISSES THEM? AND TELL THEM NOT TO WORRY ABOUT ME. I’M SAFE AND SOUND. I NEVER DIED. JUST… TELL THEM THAT WE’LL SEE EACH OTHER AGAIN SOMEDAY, BUT NOT TO STRESS OVER IT. PLEASE?”

  
Xeno stares in shock at the request, unable to even respond for a while at first. Finally, he looks down at Gaster in awe. “You… you’re their… their father…?” He suddenly gives Gaster a big hug, not even caring that his arms are basically slipping right through the dark matter. “Oh my god, I can’t believe it! I know your kids! I met them before! They’re so nice and I totally love them! Papy is the sweetest sugar butt spaghetti-lover in the world! No, the multiverse! And Sans… oh my god, he’s so lazy but he’s so helpful anyway! He’s the punniest little fluffy cuddly skeleton ever! Oh, I’m sorry! I’m probably making you sad now, aren’t I?” He pulls back a bit from Gaster and gives him an apologetic look. “I’m so sorry! You wanna see them again so much, don’t you? What happened to you? Oh, sorry! That’s probably too forward… you don’t have to tell me if you don’t wanna… are you okay?!”

  
Gaster stares down at the ground in thought, looking like he’s almost tearing up. “Sahn… Pap… st… I lo… oveh spahge… eteei…” Xeno gently holds Gaster’s face. “Did you, um… did you like spaghetti? Oh, don’t tell me it was your favorite food or something, was it?” Gaster nods, a sad little smile on his face as he starts to cry, drops of dark matter dripping from his eyes rather than tears. Xeno hugs him close again.

  
“Oh my god, that’s so cute!” He exclaims. “But don’t cry! I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have said anything! I should have just said okay when I read your note!” Gaster holds out his hand, requesting the phone again, and Xeno happily gives it to him. Gaster starts to tap swiftly on the screen, typing up another long message, then hands the phone back to Xeno with a somber smile on his face.

  
“I REMEMBER WHEN WE WERE STILL A REAL FAMILY SO LONG AGO. IT’S BEEN AN ETERNITY SINCE THEN, BUT I STILL REMEMBER IT. I MADE SPAGHETTI FOR THEM EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE AND THEY WOULD ALWAYS SAY I MADE IT BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE EVER COULD. IT WAS ALWAYS PAPYRUS’S FAVORITE. ON SPECIAL OCCASIONS AND HOLIDAYS, I’D MAKE SPAGHETTI SINCE PAPYRUS LOVED HOW I MADE IT SO MUCH. AND SANS… IT WASN’T QUITE HIS FAVORITE FOOD, BUT WHEN HE WAS SAD, I’D MAKE HIM SPAGHETTI TO CHEER HIM UP. IT WAS HIS COMFORT FOOD. EVEN IF IT WASN’T HIS FAVORITE, EATING IT ALWAYS MADE HIM HAPPY.

  
ONE YEAR, ME AND SANS WERE SETTING OUT MILK AND COOKIES FOR SANTA BUT PAPYRUS REFUSED TO HELP. I ASKED HIM WHY HE DIDN'T SEEM HAPPY AND HE SAID THAT SANTA DIDN'T WANT COOKIES; HE WANTED MY SPAGHETTI BECAUSE IT'S SPECIAL AND BETTER THAN ANY OTHER SPAGHETTI. PAPYRUS INSISTED THAT WE LEAVE SANTA A PLATE OF OUR DINNER BECAUSE HE KNEW THAT WOULD REALLY MAKE HIM HAPPY. THAT YEAR, SANTA GAVE HIM A RED CAPE-SCARF ALONG WITH A NOTE THANKING HIM FOR THE SPAGHETTI. 'I'VE BEEN CRAVING SPAGHETTI FOR A LONG TIME, AND THIS WAS REALLY THE BEST!' THE NOTE SAID. 'YOU'RE MY HERO, PAPYRUS! AND SANTA'S HERO DESERVES A CAPE!' HE WORE IT PRACTICALLY EVERY DAY SINCE THEN. IT ALSO BECAME A FAMILY TRADITION TO LEAVE OUT SPAGHETTI FOR SANTA.

  
OH, AND THERE WAS THAT ONE DAY, WHILE MAKING MY SPAGHETTI, I ASKED SANS TO GRAB THE SAUCE FOR ME. HE BROUGHT IT OVER AND EVEN POURED IT IN FOR ME. BUT IT WAS KETCHUP! HE ACCIDENTALLY BROUGHT OVER A BOTTLE OF KETCHUP INSTEAD OF THE SAUCE! I COULD BARELY BREATHE; IT WAS SO FUNNY! PAPYRUS WASN’T TOO HAPPY ABOUT IT THOUGH. HE MADE SANS EAT THE ENTIRE POT OF KETCHUP-SPAGHETTI.

  
HE NEVER REALLY LIKED KETCHUP, BUT FROM THEN ON IT WAS ALWAYS OUR LITTLE FAMILY JOKE. ‘SANS, DO YOU WANT SOME KETCHUP ON THAT?’ WE’D ASK HIM WHENEVER WE’D GO OUT TO EAT SOMEWHERE. HE STILL WASN'T REALLY MUCH OF A KETCHUP FAN, BUT ONE DAY HE DECIDED TO SHOW US ALL UP BY DRINKING DOWN AN ENTIRE BOTTLE OF THE STUFF! ME AND PAPYRUS WERE IN COMPLETE SHOCK! AND HONESTLY, WE WERE IMPRESSED. SANS HAD DRANK AN ENTIRE BOTTLE OF SOMETHING HE DOESN'T EVEN LIKE JUST FOR A JOKE. WE WEREN'T GOING TO KEEP TEASING HIM SO MUCH AFTER THAT. IT'S FUNNY; I THINK HE ACTUALLY STARTED TO LIKE KETCHUP AFTER THAT. ONCE IN A WHILE HE'D ACTUALLY HAVE SOME KETCHUP ON HIS FRIES OR BURGERS. I GUESS HE WARMED UP TO IT A BIT.

  
I’M SORRY THIS WAS SO LONG. I GUESS I JUST NEEDED TO REMINISCE A LITTLE BIT.”

  
Xeno reads over the entire story, then chuckles and smiles down at Gaster. “Aww, no! That’s so cute! That just… Wow, that explains so much actually!” He offers the phone back to Gaster. “I totally understand the need to just ramble on sometimes. I do it, like, ALL the time! So… hey, if you wanna just get out some things to someone, I’m sure I can spare some time to listen to your stories. I know Wolfie; he’s not in any danger down there. So… you can be a proud father for a little while and tell me all about your memories of your kids!” Gaster looks up at Xeno, shadowy tears in his eyes still, then smiles and takes the phone.

  
“THANK YOU…”

 

**|\vvv/|**

 

Ravina looks down the golden hallway and rubs his eyes, groaning. "I hate the light." Looking to the sparkle of determination beside him, he questions whether or not he REALLY needs to SAVE right now. There’s probably another SAVE point right after this hallway. He shrugs and taps the SAVE point, deciding that it doesn’t hurt to SAVE more than necessary. He stretches out his arms, legs, and wings, then calmly and confidently walks down the corridor, keeping his eyes out for the king he knows is hiding somewhere in this castle.

  
However, Wolf knows that there is still someone left untouched. A certain... skeleton may still be alive... but he assumes that the smiley skeleton will just die on his own after seeing everything he loves and cares about having been turned to dust. Well, probably. Wolf isn’t sure about him.

  
Suddenly, while approaching the middle of the corridor, Ravina hears slow footsteps from behind a pillar. He stops and looks over to see(speak of the devil) Sans himself coming out from behind the pillar. Ravina can't say he was expecting him to show up right now. He figured that if he was going to confront this little fluffy skeleton, it would have been much earlier on. But this is fine; a free kill just before the “final boss” then. Sans stands before the wolf, hands in his pockets as the golden light from outside the windows falls on his features and casts a long shadow over the pristine checkerboard floor. Sans stares blankly at the wolf, who is standing in the shadow cast by one of the columns in order to avoid the purifying and heavenly light of the sunrise coming from outside the barrier, with the silence of the scene only broken by the soft sound of distant curtains gently blowing in a slow breeze in the room past the hallway.

  
“well, wolfie,” Sans eventually says quietly. “can’t say i was expecting this. i mean, after all the praises xeno sang of you… heh. really, i was expecting to like you once we finally met. but even from the first talk we had, i could tell there was something off about you. there’s so much love in your soul, kid. and it ain’t the good kind of love either. you’re really fucking everything up, y’know. the world itself is in pain ‘cuz of you. did you even notice? i bet you didn’t. and if you did, you don’t care. you don’t care about this world, and you’re not paying attention to how it feels about your sins. well… hopefully you’re at least aware that you’re a total piece of shit.” Wolf chuckles, giving Sans a wink. “Better believe it, buddy. I’m perfectly aware that I suck. But I’ve got my reasons for being this way.” Sans’s eye lights flicker slightly, his smile unwavering on his face. “heh, yeah. i’m sure you do. they always do, don’t they? they always have some bullshit excuse for their sins.” His eye lets out a small warning burst of blue light for a brief moment before returning to normal. “you can’t hide from karmic retribution forever, kid. you’ve gotta step outta the shadows someday.”

  
He takes a short step forward, which Wolf mimics as he pulls Shadowspear off his back. Seeing the demon’s eagerness to fight, Sans gently shuts his eyes and stands in the beams of morning light, not a drop of worry in his bones. “welp. looks like that day is gonna be today.”

  
The sudden sound of the battle flashes sounds louder than usual as Wolf’s SOUL jumps out of his chest. He stands in a proud battle stance, his weapon pointing down the length of his arm and tapping quietly against the floor. A cocky grin sneaks onto his face as he watches Sans stand there, just begging to be broken. Wolf slowly steps towards the skeleton, dragging the tip of his spear along the ground as he approaches.

 

“it's a beautiful day outside.

birds are singing, flowers are blooming...

on days like these, kids like you...”

 

There’s a flash of darkness for a brief moment, making Wolf stop in his tracks in surprise. Sans’s eyes are now open, but lacking the usual white eye lights and making the darkness within them mimic the shadows of the Void.

 

“S h o u l d b e b u r n i n g i n h e l l .”

 

A sudden glass-like clinking sound is heard as Wolf sees his SOUL drop straight to the ground while it is encased in blue. He hesitates in shock, then howls in pain as a wall of bones spring up from the ground and impales his SOUL. Wolf flaps his wings and flies up in panic, the attack doing much more damage than he expected from the lazybones.

  
Before he could even get the chance to relax, a wave of bones is shot towards him and he flutters about in a desperate attempt to dodge it. _Wait, no, what the hell is this?!_ He ends up running straight into a whole bunch of the bones and stumbles in the air, able to feel the pain from absolutely every bone that hit him. All of his former cockiness is already wiped out of his body as he shoots a legitimately horrified look at Sans, the skeleton’s one eye glowing blue and yellow as he simply stands there with his own smile on his face, as if he literally stole that cocky grin that Wolf originally had.

 

As if to rub even more salt in the wound, Wolf suddenly finds himself surrounded by four large skull blaster things. In his panic, he couldn’t tell which way they were aiming and he ended up flying straight into a loud blast of light. He lets out a wolf-like whine in pain and moves out of the attack, ending up falling right into another beam of light…

  
And then all the lights go out and he finds himself collapsed face down in the empty embrace of death. Wolf doesn’t even bother to move from his position as he starts to float in the darkness, in too much shock to move his body. He simply stares down at the nothingness, his eye twitching involuntarily as he reflects on what just happened.

  
“Uh… I… guh… uh… uh… wha…?” He stutters out, unable to form actual words at the moment. Even in his mind, the only thought that comes up is just what the fuck just happened? Other than that, even his thoughts are just random stuttering.

  
It’s at least five minutes before Ravina is able to concentrate enough to even acknowledge the CONTINUE and RESET buttons. Oddly enough, the RESET button is glitching out and it’s color is reversed. He slowly raises his head to look at them, the hints of regret glimmering in his blue eyes. “Oh my god…” His eyes dart over to the the glitching RESET button, honestly considering pressing that one even though he really isn’t sure what it’ll do. If it gets him out of having to get past THAT ridiculously overpowered monstrosity…

  
“No,” he growls, slapping the CONTINUE button with his tail and getting plopped down right beside the SAVE point. “It looks like it’s messed up anyway. Who knows what it’ll do. Heh heh. Of course, I’m locked into doing this now. I️ HAVE to go through with it. This part of the story is just designed to punish me, isn’t it?” He slowly rises to his feet, using his spear to hold himself up as his body denies his mind’s commands to stay determined. His shaking eyes glance down the hall and see Sans stepping out from behind the column already, his eyes closed as he turns towards the shaken-up wolf. He blinks his eyes open and chuckles, that cocky skeleton grin still on his face.

  
“heya, little wolfie,” he says teasingly. “you look pretty shaken up there, kid. did the big bad wolf get shot down by the hunter once already?”

  
Wolf growls and bares his fangs, feeling himself be filled with anger at the stupid skeleton. He forces his body to stop its cowering and slashes at the air in anger, then walks down the hall towards the little monster, the light from the morning sun and the shadows from the columns alternating against his form as he approaches. Sans chuckles, giving Wolf a little shrug.

  
“woah, you look pretty pissed off,” he says. “i really am pretty good at this, huh?”

  
A shudder goes down Wolf’s spine as his SOUL pops out of his body again, but his anger at the skeleton is far greater than his instinctive nervousness about his situation. Wolf holds up his spear in defense as Sans does his brief little spiel.

  
“it's a beautiful day outside.”

  
Wolf growls in annoyance. “It’s too hot and sunny to be beautiful.”

  
“birds are singing, flowers are blooming...”

  
“I’ll watch them all burn someday,” Wolf spits.

  
“on days like these, kids like you...”

  
Wolf braces himself as Sans’s eyes shoot open, revealing the void-like darkness inside.

  
“S h o u l d b e b u r n i n g i n h e l l .”

  
Wolf immediately bounces up as his SOUL gets slammed onto the ground, but he still clips the bottom of his SOUL on the bones that sprout from the ground. He winces in pain as he stumbles about in the air, failing to dodge the wave of bones shot towards him. He lets out little grunts of pain as each bone pounds against his SOUL and his body, knocking the breath from his lungs. He scrambles to dodge the blasters, but still ends up running into the two large ones that appear at the end, crashing into the darkness again.

  
“Oh… my… god…” Wolf breathes out quietly as he sits in the darkness. Honestly, he has no idea what he should do about this. RESET? Should he give up? No, he refuses to do that, if “giving up” is even a possibility now that the RESET button’s all fucked up. _Is Sans a god or something?!_ He thinks. _What the hell could that monster even BE?!_

  
Wolf taps the CONTINUE button and hops out of the darkness, looking down the long golden hallway of death. It looks empty right now, but Wolf knows better as he walks through it and glances around, searching the pillars for the skeleton god. Eventually, he sees Sans calmly step out from behind the pillar and look over at Wolf. He smirks gleefully.

  
“ well, hey,” he says as he examines Wolf’s face. “that's the expression of someone who's died twice in a row.” Wolf raises an eye at this; how does he KNOW that?! Sans shrugs, looking away for a moment. “suffice to say, you look really... unsatisfied.” He looks back at Wolf, chuckling. “all right. how 'bout we make it a third?”

  
“it's a beautiful day outside.”

  
Wolf’s entire body twitches in rage at that. “Don’t.”

  
“birds are singing, flowers are blooming...”

  
“Shut up,” Wolf growls, smirking in anger as he tries to contain his emotions.

  
“on days like these, kids like you...”

  
Wolf holds up his spear. “Sans, I swear to fuck, if you’re gonna fucking say this every goddamn time…!”

  
“S h o u l d b e b u r n i n g i n h e l l .”

  
_Oh my fucking god he is, isn’t he?_

  
Wolf shoots up into the air to dodge the bones from the ground, then tries his best to zip through the wave of bones that Sans shoots towards him, although he keeps clipping himself on them anyway. He manages to slip around the first couple beams, but crashes into the last two and ends up face down on the ground, left right on the verge of death. He breathes heavily as he pushes himself off the ground, glaring up at the skeleton before him. Sans’s usual white eye lights have returned and he looks down at the fallen demon.

  
“ huh. always wondered why people never use their strongest attack first,” he says, looking down at the wolf giving him a quiet growl. Wolf blinks and quiets himself in relief; _that means it’ll get easier then,_ he thinks. _Thank FUCK._

  
As Wolf rises to his feet, he notices a text box appear briefly in his vision.

  
**You feel like you’re going to have a bad time.**

  
Wolf feels something inside him break.

  
“OH MY GOD, YOU DON’T FUCKING SAY?!” Wolf exclaims as he reads that line, pulling at his fur in rage. That statement completely broke open the floodgates for Wolf; he then starts stomping about and hitting his spear angrily against the columns and the ground, feeling completely fed up already with all of this as he spews curses and nonsensical insults left and right. “GONNA HAVE A BAD TIME BAD TIME YEAH OKAY FUCKING SURE WHAT THE FUCK EVER I CAN’T FUCKING BELIEVE THIS SHIT YOU TELL ME I’M GONNA HAVE A FUCKING BAD TIME I’M ALREADY HAVING A FUCKING BAD AND SHITTY SHIT FUCK ASS CRAPTASTIC TIME HERE WITH THAT MOTHER FUCKING SKELETON FUCKWHORE MONSTER CUNT PELVIS SPINE ASS CRACKER JACK OFF SON OF A MOTHER FUCKING BAD TIME BITCH…” and so on.

  
Sans just stands there and stares at this event. He could kill Wolf very easily with him like this, but… clearly he needs to get out some anger right now. He steps back behind the pillar to give Wolf a bit of space. “ just gonna slip back here for a little bit,” he says. “call me when you’ve, uh, calmed down a bit.”

  
After an unidentifiable amount of time full of fucks that were most definitely given, Sans hears Wolf slam his weapon against the floor, then finally the string of nonsense ends and he picks it back up. Wolf takes a long, deep breath. “Okay… okay, I’m calm now, I just… I just… fucking hell, that was just not okay. That was NOT okay.” Sans peeks out from behind the pillar and sees Wolf preparing to fight again. He steps back out into his spot and looks over at him. “well then, here we go.”

  
Wolf was just about to jump at Sans when his SOUL clinks to the ground and a bunch of bones slides across the ground and sky towards him. He hops through the openings between them, unable to fly with all the bones in the sky too, and also the heightened gravity on his SOUL won’t allow him to stay airborne for very long. The attack should be relatively simple to dodge, but Wolf still stumbles and clips his SOUL on them once in a while because he jumps too high a couple times. He wipes a bit of sweat off his face, noticing that he’s got a headache from his ranting earlier. “Fuck,” he groans, glancing over at Sans and examining him a bit. Another text box appears.

  
**SANS 1 ATK 1 DEF  
** **The easiest enemy.  
**Can only deal 1 damage.****

********

  
Wolf drops his spear to the ground with a loud clang. “I’M DONE,” he screams, turning around and walking away. “I’M FUCKING DONE. DID I SAY I WAS DONE BEFORE? NO, NOW I’M DONE. THAT WAS JUST PHASE 1 OF MY DONE-NESS. THIS IS THE PHASE 2. OH MY FUCKING GOD.” He suddenly stops and turns around, pointing dramatically and angrily at Sans who has shrunk down a little with an almost worried look on his face. “YOU! COCKY LITTLE SHIT BAG WOLF KILLER! I FUCKING HATE YOU! I JUST FUCKING HATE YOU SO MUCH!” He starts pacing back and forth, a crazed smile on his face. “I’m so full of rage oh my god oh my fucking god I swear to fuck Sans Sans SANS SANS FUCK YOU SANS YOU ARE THE WORST THE ABSOLUTE WORST EVER UNDYNE WAS LITERALLY NOTHING COMPARED TO YOU FUCK!!” And he falls right back into his crazed rambling.  
Sans blinks as he observes the scene, then plops himself on the ground and pulls out a few ketchup packets. “wow.” He rips one of the packets open and slurps it down as he watches Wolf’s words turn into literal nonsense. “GIHB HAH NGAARR HEGEGEH JIE FUCK BARRK NYANAHA KAHE HEGATE BEHAAAAA!!” Sans slurps down another packet. “ wooooooow. you seem like you’ve got some serious anger issues you’ve gotta work out there, wolfie.” Wolf kicks his foot at Sans, as if trying to kick a ball or something at him but there was nothing there to kick.

  
“I HAVE NEVER BEEN THIS ANGRY IN MY LIFE, SANS!” He exclaims. “I HAVE LITERALLY NEVER FELT RAGE LIKE THIS BEFORE! OH BOY, MOTHER FUCKER! GOLLY GEE, LOOK AT WHAT YOU’VE DONE! YOU’VE MADE ME GO INSANE! EVEN MORE THAN I ALREADY AM! WHOOPDEE FUCKING DOO” He continues his pacing and random gibberish as Sans sits back and observes. “it’s a shame i’m not gonna remember this after he dies and comes back,” he comments to himself. “kinda wish i could get this on video and have him take it with him through the timelines. ‘cuz this is seriously amazing.”

  
After calming down a bit from his fit of rage, Wolf narrows his eyes at Sans. “Why the fuck am I not dead yet?” Sans shrugs, emptying out the last of his ketchup packet snacks. “and interrupt this beautiful show? heh heh! do you really think i’d cut this off?” Wolf smirks, crossing his arms. “Or maybe you’re starting to like me…?” Sans pushes himself to his feet and shrugs. “nah, don’t get me wrong. you’re still a piece of shit. i definitely still hate you.” Wolf drops his arms from his chest. “Oh well. Was worth a shot. Guess I’ll have to kill you then.”

  
“no thanks.”

  
Suddenly, a sharp pain goes through him as Wolf finds himself standing in the darkness again. He just stands there for a moment, eyes wide in surprise, then frowns to the darkness. “You sneaky mother fucker.” He pulls back his fist and punches the CONTINUE button, then turns on his heels and agitatedly walks back over to Sans. “I fucking hate you.” Sans chuckles and shrugs as he looks over Wolf’s expression. “…heh. yeah, that's the expression of someone who's died thrice in a row.” Wolf’s eye twitches as the two stand in silence for a moment. Eventually, Sans speak again. “hey, what comes after "thrice," anyway? wanna help me find out?”

  
“No,” Wolf says blankly as the world flashes into black and white again. Somehow the sight of Sans in monochrome is more triggering to Wolf than him in color.

  
“it's a beautiful day outside.”

  
“I swear to fuck, Sans…”

  
“birds are singing, flowers are blooming...”

  
Wolf growls to himself in annoyance, rubbing at his forehead to try and ease a headache coming on. “I SWEAR. To FUCK. SANS.”

  
Suddenly, he feels his SOUL cling to the ground prematurely. He lets out a shocked bark and scrambles through Sans’s opening attack, caught completely off guard by his intro statements being cut off early. After crashing to the ground, left on the verge of death once again, he hears Sans shift slightly. “anyway, as i was saying, it's a nice day out,” he says as Wolf lifts his eyes to glare at Sans, that cocky smirk on his face again. “why not relax and take a load off?” Wolf spits at Sans in annoyance.

  
“And you call ME a piece of shit,” he growls as he crawls to his feet. “You’re one to talk.” Sans raises an eye socket at him. “hey, which one of us is the one who just killed a whole bunch of xeno’s newest friends?” Wolf deadpans as he raises his spear. “God, I hate you so much.”

  
Ravina lunges at Sans, slashing his spear down where he once was. After seeing that his spear just ended up making a little dent in the ground, he looks around to see Sans had popped over a few feet away. Wolf narrows his eyes at him. “Oh, and you can TELEPORT too, can ya?! You cocky little bastard.” He pulls his spear out of the ground and jumps around Sans’s next attack, noticing a pattern here... His attacks look much easier than they really are. That’s it. That’s the pattern. They’re all ridiculously impossible to deal with.

  
After getting injured even more by the attack, Wolf raises a shaking hand at Sans. “Okay, what the hell even ARE you?!” Sans looks down at his feet, then pulls his hands out of his pockets to look at them too, then pulls at his shirt to look inside, and finally shoves his hands back into his pockets and looks at Wolf again. “i’m pretty sure that, after looking into it a little bit more just now, i’m mostly a skeleton.” Wolf would usually find that quite funny, and honestly he can’t help but snicker a little.

  
“Okay, yeah, sure,” Wolf mumbles. “But then, mostly? What’s the rest of you?” Sans holds out his hand, pulls off his glove and wiggles his fingers a bit. “oh, magic, of course!” Wolf laughs quietly to himself, rubbing at his forehead to keep his headache away. “Yeah, right. Duh. Of course it’s freaking ma-…”

  
A sharp pain goes through him, cutting him off for a moment as he dies again. “…gic.” He finishes to nothing. He takes a moment to stand in silence, then drops his arms to his side. “Sans, you sneaky little fucker.” He punches the CONTINUE button, almost shattering it, and walks back up to Sans, his arms crossed as he looks over at the skeleton.

  
“hmm. that expression... that's the expression of someone who's died quice in a row.” Sans and Wolf stare at each other for a moment, Wolf having a slightly pensive look as he thinks over that word. “quice? frice?” Sans is apparently also thinking about his word choice. He then shrugs. “welp, won't have to use it again anyways.”

 

**|\vvv/|**

 

“that's the expression of someone who's died seven times in a row. hey, that's good. seven's supposed to be a lucky number. who knows, maybe you'll hit the jackpot... and that number will multiply tenfold.”

  
“that's the expression of someone who's died ten times in a row. hey, congrats! the big one-oh! let's invite all your friends over for a big shindig. we can have pie, and hot dogs, and... hmmm... wait. something's not right. you don’t make friendships; you kill them.”

  
“let’s just get to the point.”

  
“here we go.”

  
Ravina scratches yet another tally into his left arm as he floats in the darkness. Sans has stopped counting his deaths at this point, so Wolf’s gotta keep track himself. He digs his sharp claw into the underside of his arm and drags a small line down in it, then licks up the blood. “F-fifty seven…” he stutters to himself in a kind of high-pitched voice as he stares down at all the tallies, an obsessive madness in his eyes and smile. “Fifty seven deaths so far. Wow, I just can’t WAIT to die a fifty EIGHTH time! Ahaha! Ahahahahaha!”

  
He falls to his knees, laughing maniacally as he envisions Sans pinned down underneath him, the Wolf’s claws wrapped around his neck and clenching tightly at the bones as Sans stares up at him with that stupid arrogant smile. Wolf raises one of his hands as he stares down at his mind’s illusion. “You KNOW, DON’T you?!” He slams his fist down on Sans’s face, breaking into his cheekbone, the loud sound of shattering bone gracing his ears. He slowly pulls out his hand, dripping with blood and with pieces of shattered bone stuck to it, to prepare another attack.

  
“You know EX-EXAAAAACTLY what you’re doing to me!” He laughs as he thrusts his fist into Sans’s teeth, breaking through them and splattering drops of blood on his fur and fangs. He then slowly and meticulously starts to pluck out the teeth one by one. “You’re not just… just KILLING me OVER…” He tears out another one of his teeth. “and OVER…” Another tooth is brutally ripped out. “and OVER! And OVER!” He grips at Sans’s jaws and starts to pull them apart. “Isn’t it just a little UNFAIR… that YOU can… can kill ME SSOOOOO MUCH but you don’t wa-wanna SHARE the FUN?!”

  
He roars with insane laughter as he tears Sans’s skull in half, tossing away his lower jaw and gripping at the sides of the remaining skull. He tugs it right off his neck and holds it close to his face, staring intensely into the skeleton’s eyes. “It’s not HEALTHY for any relationship to be so ONE-SIDED, Sans!!” He gives the skull a long slimy lick, trailing saliva along the inside of Sans’s eye sockets. “How… how SELFISH of you!”

  
After mutilating Sans’s body enough for Wolf to calm down just a bit, Wolf continues to kneel down in the darkness, blinking himself back into reality as he breathes heavily and clutches the fur on his knees. “Fuck… fuck… just… why can’t I just END this?! And what the fuck is WRONG with me…?”

  
Wolf has to admit; he doesn’t REALLY want to kill Sans anymore. Truthfully, it’s just out of pride that he wants to win. No, he HAS to win. Killing Sans is just a bonus to winning the battle. He weakly taps the slightly-glitched CONTINUE button and rises to his feet, slowly walking down the hallway as his shaking body tries to stay determined. His blue eyes, now having hints of red in them due to all the anxiety and exhaustion from the never ending fight, catch sight of the all-too-familiar skeleton step out from behind the column.

  
“let’s just get to the-”

  
“Sans,” Wolf says, holding out his hand towards the skeleton. His crooked smirk on his face wavers as Sans raises an eye socket at the change. “oh? heh. something the matter, kid? do ya-”

  
“NO,” Wolf says louder than he intended to, the smirk still on his face as he cuts off Sans’s question. “Nothing. Nothing’s the matter. Everything’s going just so fucking SWELL. I’m having a fucking GREAT time here with you! I don’t even really CARE how often I die! None of it MATTERS anyway, does it? We’re all just fictional characters in a story, after all!” He opens his arms wide. “So kill me again! See if I care! Is this how they’re doing it now? They wanna see me pay for what I’ve done? For struggling against their control? My punishment is having to deal with YOU? Ha! I don’t wanna be a puppet! I don’t wanna be just a CHARACTER! I wanna be REAL! I wanna feel ALIVE! And whether the Creator likes it or not, I AM ALIVE! And they know you can’t kill me for good! ‘Cuz I’ll keep on comin’ right back! I’m filled with pure fucking DETERMINATION! I’ll kill you! I’ll kill EVERYONE! I’ll watch the whole multiverse BURN by my hands just to piss off the one who’s writing this right now! I️ don’t hate you! I️ really don’t! As crazy as it sounds, I️ actually REALLY like you and wanna be friends! But no. No, that can’t happen. ‘Cuz I️ gotta go through with this now. I️ gotta… I️ gotta kill you. I️ gotta finish what I️ started. Just to show them… just to show the Creator who’s REALLY in control!” He takes a step towards Sans, his arm reaching towards him. “So go on! Kill me again! Kill me as many times as you want! We can do this forever, Sans! Kill me! KILL ME! It’ll add a tally to my arm and that’s all you’re really accomplishing by doing this!”

  
Sans stares at the wolf in surprise, looking over him a little. “…wow, you…” he begins. “you’ve completely lost your mind, haven’t you? heh… well, that’s not exactly what my plan was for all this, but… guess dying over and over again can do that to someone.” He lets out a little sigh, then looks at Wolf with an almost sorrowful look. “hey, look… really, i don’t mean to hurt you so much. i just wanted to make you pay for what you’ve done, but it kinda looks like you’ve already paid enough. so, why don’t i just let you go? xeno’s back at home, and… i’m sure you wanna get back to him.” He takes a few steps to the side, allowing Wolf to pass by. “no hard feelings, alright? i think you’ve got… plenty of issues to deal with sans me anyway. heh heh heh. i’m sure i’m not the only one who’ll take up the burden of punishing you for your sins, after all. there’s plenty of people who could do the same, i’m sure.”

  
Wolf stares over at Sans, who is giving him a kind and slightly somber smile as he spares him. Wolf slowly lowers his shaky arms, letting out a little sigh of relief as he lifts his foot to step forward, then takes another step, and finally starts to walk past Sans. He pauses for a moment as he passes by, giving the skeleton a trusting little smile. “…Sorry for all this, buddy,” he says. “I’ll make it up to you someday, okay?”

  
As he steps past Sans, he lets his spear rest on his back and looks over at the morning light; seems like absolutely no time at all has passed. “It’s a beautiful day outside…”

  
To Sans’s shock, Wolf completely hopped out of the way of his sudden attack, flinching in surprise as Wolf steps to the side and turns to face him, a devilish grin on his face. “To some people, that is,” he finishes his statement. “For me, a person who hates sunlight and warmth, it’s an absolutely terrible day.” He crosses his arms as he chuckles at the shocked expression on Sans’s face. “What? You think I’m just gonna stand there and take it? I knew you were gonna try and kill me there; don’t think you can trick me now. And sure, I made it LOOK like I was gonna just let you kill me, but haven’t you learned anything about me at all? I’m not gonna just GIVE UP and LET you win. What if this turns out to be the time I beat you? I can’t let myself miss my chance here! It’s what THEY want! It’s what THE CREATOR wants! The Creator of MY world! The Author of MY life story! They wanna see me be their little pawn in THEIR games, and I ain’t gonna listen! They’re unsatisfied with all this! They don’t LIKE what I’ve done and how I’ve done it! They HATE that I killed them all! They HATE that I didn’t make it interesting or satisfying! So, fine, I’ll make it INTERESTING. For me, that is. I hope they hate it. I hope everyone hates this! I hope it’s completely unenjoyable! They want you to LIVE, Sans! And even if I honestly don’t wanna kill you, my desire to break free from THEM and to make THEM unhappy is far stronger than my desire to let you live. So that’s too bad for you, Sans.” He pulls Shadowspear off his back and points it at Sans.

  
“That’s too fucking bad for you.”

 

**|\vvv/|**

 

Over a hundred.

  
Ravina has died over a hundred times now. Both his arms have tallies on them now. And SANS… Sans has gotten pretty darn arrogant in the battle. One time, Wolf walked up to see Sans standing on a piece of paper with the name “Ravina” written on it. Ravina immediately knew what he was trying to get at and narrowed his eyes at the skeleton. “Can you NOT do that?” Sans chuckled and replied “hey, what can i say? It’s just too fun to stomp you into the ground.”

  
As Wolf hops over yet another mass of bones, he starts to see beads of sweat forming on Sans’s forehead. He’s getting tired of this too, isn’t he? Wolf lunges at Sans, who teleports out of the way as usual, then launches yet another attack at him. Wolf does his best to dodge it; it’s always a gamble whether he’s gonna do okay or completely fail at dodging any of Sans’s attacks. As he glances over at the smirking little skeleton, he finds himself smiling as well no matter what. Whether that be a smirk to hide his rage, or a smirk of madness, or perhaps just a smirk of excitement, Wolf can’t help but smile when he sees Sans.

  
Truthfully, he likes Sans. He hates Sans with a burning passion and wants nothing more than to see him suffer, but he likes him. _Heh, yeah, my feelings towards him are just a bit complicated,_ he thinks as he zips about to dodge a bunch of Gaster Blasters shooting at him. He watches intently at Sans’s arm to see where gravity’s gonna pull him next as Sans throws him into the next attack. Wolf has to have extremely quick reflexes to deal with Sans’s attacks sometimes, and has to be patient and observant for others.

  
And then there’s times where he just gets plain lucky.

  
Speaking of lucky, looks like Sans is really working himself down to the bone. Wolf readies his weapon to attack as Sans huffs in exhaustion, his body slouched over and his eyes half closed. Before Wolf could rush over and attack, Sans holds out his arm and his eye flashes yellow and blue for a moment. “you… really don’t know when to quit, do you?”

  
Wolf fights against gravity as Sans tries to toss his SOUL into his attacks. His wings flap wildly against the heaviness of his glass-covered SOUL, having to change his motions slightly with every change of gravity. Eventually his SOUL is released from its casing and Wolf’s flaps accidentally fling him forward towards a long bone being sent his way. He manages to stop himself before ramming into it and zooms back and forth in between the lines of bones sent towards him. He grunts as he gets flung to the ground, then watches as Sans steps aside and gives Wolf a little wave. "see ya at the end, wolfie."

  
Wolf lets out a quiet noise of surprise as he starts to slide down the ground towards the end of the hallway. He bounces off the ground as he sees bones start to pop out of the ground in his way. He falls between them, glancing up once in a while and seeing Sans standing beside literally every column he passes by. _That goddamn teleporting skeleton,_ he thinks as he passes by Sans giving him the middle finger with both hands. He could swear he saw Sans in a skirt at one point and he tries to do a double take on that, but he’s falling too fast to see it again. "No, fuck, I wanna see that- no, focus, Wolf! Woah!" He slips through what is basically a funnel of bones and onto the far wall of the hall, hopping off it as a wall of bones appears from it.

  
With a flash of darkness, Wolf finds himself at a different part of the hallway with the ground glowing red to indicate the next bone attack's location. Wolf hops up into the sky, just to find himself teleported to a wall where another bone attack is being prepared. He swiftly jumps off that one too, finding himself on the ceiling this time. Once again, he hops off it and suddenly finds gravity return to normal as the growls of Sans's Gaster Blasters is heard. Wolf's pupils shrink in terror at the sight of the spiral of Gaster Blasters surrounding him. "Oh fuck."

  
Each one starts to roar out it’s beams, each one happening just a split second after the previous one as Wolf tries to use Saikik to help speed himself up to escape the spiral of bright death. One ring, two rings, three rings, four, five...

  
And suddenly he finds himself get slammed straight into the ground. Before he could even realize what was happening, he gets slammed up into the ceiling. He feels his bones ache and break as Sans alters gravity so much and so strongly that Wolf bets the entire planet is shaking from the magical manipulation. Wolf lets out dog-like whines and whimpers of pain as he gets tossed around the hall like a puppet, then finally starts to notice Sans slowing down on his onslaught. Wolf weakly pushes his body off the ceiling, just for him to be slowly sent down to the floor, where he is practically laid down gently onto the bloodstained checkerboard floor, looking over at Sans who has practically fallen to his knees after the attack. His breathing is deep and heavy as his arm hangs down towards the floor and his eyes have fallen shut. “ heh… heh… so, wolfie…” He slowly cracks his eyes open to look over at the fallen demon. “you’re, uh, very determined, aren’t you?” He lets out a big sigh as he stands back up as usual, shoving his hand back into his pocket. “but, uh… so am i, so… sucks to be you.”

  
Wolf weakly crawls to his knees, feeling his bones ache and sharp pains course through him with every movement. He definitely broke some bones. Wolf looks over at Sans, who is staring down at him with a small hint of a blue-yellow glimmer in his eye. “i, uh… know you don’t wanna quit…” Sans says tiredly. “but… well, i think you should just… learn when to accept defeat. you can’t win every battle, wolfie. and, uh… this is a battle you definitely can’t win.”

  
As he watches Sans stare down at him, Wolf slowly forces himself to his feet. He glances to the side to see Shadowspear laying there a ways away from him. It had slipped out of his hand while he was being tossed around. Wolf stretches his sharp claws as he stares at the weakened skeleton, half of him wanting to run up and kill him now…

  
And the other half…

  
“you know,” Sans says in fatigue. “you could probably just… turn around and head out the way you came in. i mean, i know you need a monster soul, but… heh. nah, i bet you could find a way through. with your determination, i really bet you could, uh… come up with something. besides… the, uh… barrier’s kinda… it’s got cracks in it, so… maybe you could just… slip through the cracks… or something. why don’t you just head back home and… and do literally anything else...?”

  
The two stand there in the golden sunlight of the early morning, the shadows of their drooping forms being cast upon the far wall. The battle scene has faded away and color has bled back into the world as if nature is too tired to keep the battle going. It’s funny to Wolf how all this animosity between them has led up to the two of them standing here in the golden-red light, each one just one good hit away from being killed. As odd as it sounds, fighting someone for however long it’s been really makes a bond start to form. Perhaps it’s some strange form of masochism or Stockholm syndrome, but Wolf almost doesn’t want this animosity to end.

  
“just…” Sans says with a yawn. “just go home. i don’t wanna keep doing this forever… i want you to reset everything… set things back to the way they were before… all of this… happened… before xeno came here… before you came here…” His eyes start to fall shut as his words start to slow down and become quieter. “i know… i’ll… forget him, but… i don’t wanna live… i just don’t wanna live anymore… just reset. just… just reset it all… make me… forget about both of you… make us all forget about both of you. make it… like… neither of you… were… ever… here…”

  
The sound of distant birds chirping and singing in the distance pushes through the silence of the room as Wolf watches Sans doze off to sleep. He raises an eyebrow at it in disbelief; there’s no way Sans ACTUALLY fell asleep in the middle of their battle, right?

  
Just to test it, Wolf takes a couple slow and quiet steps towards Shadowspear, keeping his eyes on Sans the whole time. Sans starts to let out quiet snores, making Wolf assume that it’s possible that he really did fall asleep. Or it’s another trap… Or maybe Sans feels that bond between them as well and is trusting Wolf.

  
Or maybe that one’s just wishful thinking on Wolf’s part.

  
After taking a few more steps, his claws making quiet clicks against the shimmering ground, Wolf reaches down to pick up Shadowspear, the sound of the metal unintentionally rubbing against the ground for a moment letting out a quiet echo in the hall. Wolf raises the spear to hold in both his hands by his chest, looking over the metal that has so far gone unused in this battle. He then glances over at Sans, a cute little lazy smile on his face as he sleeps peacefully with his hands in his pockets and his head slumped forward.

  
It’s absolutely adorable.

  
Wolf runs his finger along the length of his weapon, then flips it into his left hand and slowly steps towards Sans, being covered by the shadow of a column as he approaches. Still in the shade, Wolf stands before Sans and slowly raises his spear, the tip of it poking out into the light and casting a concentrated glimmer onto the side of Sans's face. Wolf can’t help but let a toothy grin creep onto his face.

  
_You idiot._

  
However, before he moves his weapon, the smirk on his face fades away as swiftly as it came. “…Y’know, Sans,” he whispers, knowing that Sans is asleep and can’t hear him, but speaking anyway under the assumption that at least someone out there in the multiverse (or looking in from somewhere beyond it) is hearing him. “I️ honestly admire you. You… I’ve never met anyone else who would go quite this far to fight evil. Well, I’ve met myself, but I️ suppose that doesn’t count. After all, look what I’ve become. I’m very aware that I’m losing so much not because I️ don’t have the capability to win, but because I️ am not the hero of this story. I️ know… I’m the villain. Honestly… how the fuck did this happen, anyway? I️ used to be just like you. I️ remember that there was a time in my life where I’d have done absolutely anything to help others. I’d go as far as to face the gods head-on just to help save the world, if it came to that. If I️ was the only one who could help, I️ would. Now look. Here I️ am, having destroyed all the HOPE of the Underground in a single night. I️ used to be the giver of that hope. Now I’m just a Bringer of Anarchy. …Heh. Welp. I’ll try again to be good when I️ get home. Sorry we couldn’t be friends, Sans. I️ really fucked this all up, didn’t I️, huh buddy?”

  
The weapon is brought down swiftly towards Sans... but in a sudden moment of hesitation he narrowly misses him and instead slashes just in front of his body, making Sans snap his eyes open and move slightly to the side. " heh, didja really think you would be able-"

  
His remark gets cut off by a gasp of pain as Wolf instinctively swings the weapon towards him in an upward-curving motion, slicing a long diagonal wound in Sans's body.

  
They stand there and stare into each other’s eyes, time itself seeming to slow to a snail’s pace as they watch the blood splatter into the air, following the spear’s movement. Believe it or not, Wolf wasn’t really going to kill Sans there. He decided against it at the very last second.

  
That second swing was an accident.


	10. It’s My Greatest Creation ~ Hiraeth

A thundering silence befalls the Judgement Hall as the broken pieces of bone and shards of blue jacket pause in midair, time seeming to completely freeze in its place for a long moment. The world sporadically flickers back and forth from the monochromatic battle scene and the vibrant colors of reality, seemingly unable to decide whether or not to bring back the battle scene at all at this point. Amidst the flickering lights, Wolf’s blue eyes shrunk down in awe as he stares into Sans’s white eye lights, also shrunk down to the minimum they could possibly be without being completely invisible.

  
For a moment in the aftermath, a howling laugh of bitter exultation rings throughout Wolf’s mind while he realizes the situation. In just that single fraction of a second that Wolf managed to discern the outcome of his action, a shadow of overwhelming pleasure and egotistical joy is cast down on his mind.

  
It’s the end.

  
It’s…

  
…Really the end.

  
And as suddenly as it came, the shadow faded away and a clear lightness passes over him. He could suddenly feel the consequences and magnitude of his executions weighing on his mind. He felt his sins crawling on his back; demons pounding in his chest. An agonizing throbbing in his mind was devouring his sanity alive. And here it is, standing at the forefront of his mind, glaring through the mirrors of his eyes and clinging to the inside of his mind. A needle of regret impales his heart, pulling a string of despair through him.

  
But only for a moment.

  
Eventually, the flickers seem to settle on simply leaving the world in color; even nature itself seems to know that the battle is over now. Slowly but surely time starts to crawl on again, ticking along at such a slow pace that, despite his abysmal eyesight, Wolf can see every drop of blood that was flung into the air by his attack. He sees every single shard of blue fabric that was ripped off his jacket. He sees every piece of bone that was broken off his body. He sees every bead of sweat formed on the skeleton’s face. No… that isn’t sweat on his face. Being able to see everything for that short time, Wolf notices pieces of Sans’s skull seemingly melted in on itself around where the beads of “sweat” are. Wolf then realizes that’s not sweat at all;

  
That’s determination.

  
He sees the single ray of light coming from the pinprick white dots in his otherwise void-like eye sockets. And as he stares into those void-like eyes, he sees himself in the pinprick pupils as if those are images of himself floating out in the timeless yet fleeting existence of the Void. He sees himself reflected in those miniature and dim lights, seeing himself from the eyes of Sans.

  
For once in his life, Wolf feels fear of HIMSELF.

  
As time slowly begins to move at a normal pace again, the glimmering red blood splattering against the nearest golden column and dripping from Sans’s wound down to the orange and gold checkered ground, Wolf carefully lowers his shaking arm holding the weapon whose tip is now coated a dark red. The end of it is lowered to rest against the ground, making a small clink sound echo in the hall as the only noise to shatter the silence of the moment. The wet liquid slowly rolls down the weapon to the floor, creating a minuscule puddle of dark red against the gold.

  
Wolf stands up straight as he looks down at Sans, who is hunched over in pain as he holds his gloved hands against his wound. He struggled to hold down a cough, but fails and sputters up some blood that seeps through his teeth and rolls down his jaw. His head is lowered so Wolf can’t see his eyes as the skeleton’s rattled body slowly and weakly tries to lower itself to the ground carefully, but in his current state his body can’t take the strain of lowering itself down gently and just ends up stumbling down to a sitting position with his upper body curled in on itself in pain. The sound of his tormented grunt of pain as he collapses cuts into the silence, then the only noises are his quick and sharp breathes of misery he can’t help but let out as his body shakes and shudders. He slowly tears his hands away from his injury, staring down at the red stains on his blood-soaked white gloves. Wolf watches, speechless, as Sans raises his head to reveal the mourning smile on his face and his watery eyes glistening with unstoppable tears of pain. A silenced chuckle slips through his teeth as Wolf’s eyes twitch for a moment at his statement.

  
“g-guh… g - g u e s s t h a t ‘ s i - i t . . . h u h . . . ?”

  
Something about that statement feels wrong. That’s it? That’s IT? This is the end of everything? All of this animosity… all the bad blood… the hostility… resentment… all for this end? A potential friendship broken like a bone caught in the path of a sledgehammer… or a spear, in this case. A fleeting chuckle echoes in Wolf’s mind for a brief moment. As if there was any hope they could be friends in the first place; left within the warm home in the middle of the cold, snowy land rests a soulless pile of dust, and memories of two kind smiles, one which was stolen by the wolf and worn on his face throughout the genocide. During the last trial, the kin of the stolen smile took back what belongs to his blood… and was punished for his sincere desire to bring back true justice.

  
And isn’t that always how things seem to end up?

  
A glimmer of the blue of Wolf’s eyes reflects and distorts in the golden light falling on half of his figure as he feels his gaze being dragged down into the flickers of Sans’s eye lights. A breeze of mourning drifts down the hall from a distant open window and passes through them both, making Wolf’s fur sway gently and his cape wave slowly. “…Sans…?” He breathes out, a voice overflowing with so much emotion that the true feelings in the utterance of the name is buried too deep in a sea of everything that it comes out sounding like nothing. Sans slowly tilts his head just a small amount, his eye lights completely going out for a moment before he wills them back into existence. “guess you… really… are… a demon… wolfie… heh heh… can’t believe xe… would… keep that piece… of… info from me… f-feels… like that’d b-be… kinda… important, y’know?” Wolf stares blankly at Sans, any emotions within him concealed completely by his expression. “Sans…”

  
“why the hell is he friends with you…?”

  
A blank stare from icy-cold blue eyes is the only response to that question as another gentle breeze ghosts through the hall. The heavenly golden light from outside the windows begins to fade away as a thin blanket of clouds passes by the sun outside the barrier. The Judgement Hall is left with a new blueish-grey hue that desaturates and dulls the golden sheen of the hall. The outside star that the Underground has felt the light from has gone into hiding for a while.

  
As the sheet of blue-grey descends upon the two enemies, Wolf observes the blood seeping from the skeleton’s wounds that was once a vibrant red turn into what almost looks like black with a red highlight against the edges of the drops and puddles. He opens his mouth to say something… but it refused. In place of the wolf’s statements, Sans lets out a loud grunt of pain as he slowly rises to his feet. Wolf’s eyes widen at the sight of it; could it possibly be not over yet? And why is it that a part of him hopes that it really isn’t over? Why is it that… he almost craves that misery that Sans was dishing out to him? It’s only when Sans gives him a wink and speaks his last words, his face covered in a gentle shadow with a blue hue highlighting his edges, that Wolf’s body completely locks up and refuses to move an inch.

  
“welp. i’m going to grillby’s.”

  
The only thing in Wolf’s mind at first is confusion at that statement. He doesn’t move at all when Sans slowly lifts his foot to take a step towards Wolf, then drags his other foot along with him as he walks right past Wolf, bumping into his arm(likely unintentionally) and not even seeming to notice when he stumbles. Sans somehow manages to keep his body standing as he continues to drag his feet along the glossy yet blood-splattered floor, Wolf’s ears able to pick up every minor difference in the sound as he inches away from him, hearing the shuffling of his slippers get barely but progressively quieter the farther he gets. Until…

  
“p a p y r u s , d o y o u w a n t a n y t h i n g . . . ?”

  
Every sound in the room ceases for a brief moment…

  
“. . . s e e y a s o o n , x e . . .”

  
The sound of dust spreading out along the floor is heard in the distance behind Wolf, who simply stands there, still as a lifeless puppet. The only reason you could tell he’s alive is the single tear that drips from his eye and onto the floor, mixing with the blood at his feet. And then there’s silence.

  
And stillness.

  
And then a soft snivel is heard echoing in the hall.

  
And then…

  
Nothing.

  
For an eternity...

  
Wolf stands there, and does absolutely nothing.

  
Finally, after a void-like forever has passed, Wolf blinks the waters from his eyes and slowly raises his spear out in front of him, holding it with both hands as he points the bloodied tip towards his chest, a crazed smirk creeping onto his face. "I could end myself now... and go back to do this whole thing over again... I could do it RIGHT next time..."

  
Then, with a sigh, his smile is wiped off his face and he drops the weapon to the ground with a resonating clang. "...But I won't."

  
He starts to take a step forward, wanting to move on from this incident and never look back. But he knows he can't just do that. This was an event that WILL stick with him. Forever. Into the Void and back again, it'll stay with him. Wolf lets out a quiet sigh as he turns around and looks at the now-soulless pile of dust on the other end of the hall. He blinks down some emotions in his eyes as he starts to walk towards it, the sound of his claws clicking against the desaturated floor like the ticking of a clock counting down the seconds to some kind of end... as if the end hasn't already come.

  
He stops once he’s standing before the pile of bloody clothes, looking down at them in thought, then glances at the floor around the pile. He stares at the glassy surface of the floor for a lingering moment to reflect on the event that just transpired. He had hesitated in his attempt at killing Sans, then accidentally swung at him anyway and ended it all once and for all. "...it was a momentary lapse of determination," he says to himself, this time the emotion in the words so suppressed that the true feelings in the words are lost to time after it leaves his lips. He shifts his eyes back to the pile of clothes, using his foot to sift through the dusty clump of clothes, sticky and slimy with blood. Looking through them for a bit, Wolf squats down to pick up the two fluffy pink slippers he had heard shuffling across the floor just before the skeleton’s ultimate demise. Wolf flips them around his hands a bit to examine them, his eyes running along the slightly-worn texture of the fabric and almost seeming to count every strand of fluff at the toes of it. After a few moments, Wolf gives the slippers a small nod and shrug. “These’ll do for my souvenir I guess. I’ll fix ‘em up a bit when I get home.” He rises to his feet again, carrying the slippers with him as he turns away from the pile of dust, a final breeze blowing past him and flowing through the pile behind him, scattering the dust across the end of the hall.

  
“…It’s better off like this anyway."

 

**|\vvv/|**

 

Despite his strong desire to progress, Wolf found himself standing with his arms crossed just outside the exit to the Judgement Hall and leaning against the wall with a pensive look on his face. The hazy blue of the light from the cloud-covered sky outside clings to his form and binds his feet to the ground. Shadowspear is resting against the wall beside him, a thin ray of faded light distorting against the dark metal. Wolf’s eyes mindlessly shift to the side in thought.

  
“ **Was it worth it?** ”

  
The voice seemingly came from nowhere, making Wolf blink in surprise and glance up at the ceiling. Perhaps he’s just insane, but he could swear that he just heard the voice of his Creator speak to him. “…He isn’t happy with me,” Wolf says to himself. “Good.” Under most circumstances he would have a cocky smirk on his face as he stares up at nothing, visualizing his formless Creator staring down at him. He would usually be ecstatic that he just heard the voice for the first time; he’s actually getting somewhere with his rebellion.

  
But honestly, he’s a bit too tired and torn up over the fight he just “won” to keep trying to spark up more animosity between him and his Creator right now. Wolf continues to stare up at the nothingness, awaiting more angered comments from the voice. “…Well? You got something to say to me, Creator?”

  
But only silence responds. Wolf eyes narrow slightly at the ceiling. “…Then I guess that’s that.” He looks down at his wrists, visualizing red strings wrapped around them like he’s a lifeless puppet. He can feel them; not physically, but mentally. No one would believe him if he told them. No one would ever believe the truth that none of them are real. He’s never met anyone else would would listen to him and think he’s not just crazy. It’s a terrifying thought to imagine yourself as a simple character in a fictional world, not in control of your thoughts or actions… to know that there’s someone out there who purposefully put you into your life situation. If you were born in poverty, you know there is someone out there who purposefully placed you in that situation. Meanwhile, someone else was chosen to be a king because they’re more important to the Creator. Not necessarily because they’re a better person, but because the Creator likes them better because it would create an interesting story. Meanwhile, that king becomes self-aware and becomes a killer… because he doesn’t want to be a king. Because he doesn’t want to be a puppet. Because he doesn’t want to be a killer, so he becomes one just to rebel against his Creator. To kill for his freedom… even if it ends up killing him as well.

  
“You’re a sick, sick bastard, Creator,” Wolf spits as he tugs at the illusory strings around his neck that nobody else can sense. “Is this story over? Is the audience satisfied yet? Will you leave me the fuck alone now?”

  
…

  
“Apparently not.”

  
Wolf pushes himself off the wall and swipes up Shadowspear. “Fine. You’ll get your ending then. But I won’t make any promises that it’ll be a happy or satisfying one. I refuse to let you be the one in control.” He walks down the corridor towards the throne room, his head held low and his arms at his side, tail and spear end dragging against the floor and the metal leaving a long faint scratch mark along his path. He taps a SAVE point, cementing his decisions in history and making it impossible to go back to before the murder.

  
The story has already been written.

  
The throne room is dark, the curtains drawn to block the dim light of the outside world. The golden-blue light from the hallway bleeds into the room and falls on the empty throne and Asgore, who is kneeling down before the throne and facing away from the doorway. Only his cape and horns are visible as he appears to be holding his face in his hands. The shadow of the wolf demon standing in the doorway is cast upon his form, and the monster king slowly raises his head. “…You killed him,” he whispers. “I… expected that. You’re very… relentless.”

  
The sound of Wolf slowly walking towards the monster king makes a shudder go through Asgore’s form. As the steps get closer and closer, Asgore raises his hand out to his side. “Wait...”

  
The steps pause as Wolf stops to listen to what Asgore has to say. A long, drawn out silence fills the room, unable to escape the stuffiness of the dark room with closed windows and making unease permeate the enclosed atmosphere of the scene. Wolf could hear Asgore’s breathing as the air weighs heavily on them, the wolf’s cape and fur resting motionless in the fixed shadows of the room. Asgore’s hand is lowered to the ground, his fingers resting against the flower-filled floor. “I’m truly sorry, but I drank the last of the tea a few minutes ago,” he says quietly and remorsefully. “I would offer you some if there was anything left. Perhaps if you check the kitchen you’ll find some snacks hidden away somewhere, but I’m afraid you likely won’t find much there besides crumbs. So… I’m terribly… terribly sorry for that.”

  
Wolf hesitates for a moment, staring with eyes filled with coldness at the monster king facing away from him. He opens his mouth and a word starts to form, but is cut off when Asgore starts to rise to his feet. The shifting of his clothes and fur echoes in the dim room, then pauses for a moment to just stand and stare at something beyond the throne. In the faint light from the doorway, Wolf could make out something hanging from the ceiling, but his poor eyesight prevents him from determining what it could be. Asgore slowly lifts his foot to step onto the throne, then grips at the sides of it to help himself get onto the seat. He stands on the seat of his throne, his hands resting on the edges of the back of the seat as he looks at the item hanging before him. “…Well, it was nice to meet you anyway, little demon.” He lifts his hand to wrap his fingers around the item, pulling it close to him. He takes it with both his hands and puts his head through it, and it’s at that moment that Wolf can see that it’s a rope. Or, more precisely, a noose. A spark of some kind of emotion flickers in Wolf’s eyes as he watches Asgore fasten it around his neck.

  
“…Goodbye.”

  
It was at that moment that a thought crossed Wolf’s mind. He could save Asgore from this. He could very easily walk over and stop him. He could cut the rope and prevent him from killing himself right before Wolf’s eyes. He could say something to change his mind. He could spare just one innocent monster from an untimely demise.

  
He could.

  
But as these possibilities race through his mind, his body simply looks on with an unreadable expression as Asgore’s body hangs from the noose, his body twitching and convulsing involuntarily as he chokes. The sound reverberates in the room, bouncing off the dead walls, appearing colorless in the darkness…

  
An unwavering ambiance of emptiness remains stagnant in the room as Asgore’s now-lifeless body swings peacefully in the air. Wolf watches as dust slowly starts to drizzle down behind the throne. The dusting makes its way up Asgore’s legs and reaches his body, his fingers starting to dust as well. The drizzle turns to rain as the king’s body turns to dust, reaching his chest and causing his clothes to fall to the floor. His head slips out of the noose and crashes to the floor, where it gets hidden behind the throne and, despite being concealed by it, Wolf can hear it turn to dust.

  
“…My god, who am I?” Wolf asks himself as he takes a couple slow steps towards the dust pile. He stops beside the throne and looks down at the pile, a glowing white SOUL resting on the ground. Wolf’s eyes go wide in shock; that’s it. That’s how he can escape. He raises his foot only an inch off the floor so he can move closer to retrieve it, desperately wanting to end all of this by escaping this world he destroyed. When he gets home, he’ll be back to his usual optimistic self, making Xeno happy with jokes and consoling him when he’s afraid. This will be a place Wolf will never forget, but as long as he has Xeno with him, nothing like this will ever happen again. The two balance each other out in many ways. Wolf’s desire to destroy is suppressed by Xeno’s merciful attitude.

  
This adventure has really made it clear to Wolf that NEITHER of them should go to different universes without each other.

  
Before Wolf’s paw could even get more than an inch off the ground, a sudden attack to the back of his head makes him let out a surprised noise of pain and stop in his tracks. He winces and grits his teeth as he rubs at the back of his head where he was struck by something. It wasn’t hard enough to kill him by any means, but it did hurt a decent amount. He growls as he glances over at the dust pile, seeing that someone has stolen the SOUL that was once there. He grips tightly to Shadowspear as he stares at a figure in the shadows behind the pile near the wall on the other side of the throne. “What the FUCK?!” The creature holds Asgore’s SOUL in his hands and stares down at it. “Oh god…” he says, his voice filled with dread. “Oh fuck, what… what is HAPPENING?!” Wolf’s eyes blink open wide as he recognizes the voice. “Wait… no… Xeno?!”

  
The figure in the darkness steps towards Wolf and strikes him across the face with his fist, knocking Wolf to the floor beside the throne. Wolf grunts in pain as he looks up at the figure, who places a foot on Wolf’s chest and glares down at him. In the light, the creature is revealed to, in fact, be Xeno, his one hand clenched tightly in a fist around a sturdy-looking stick and the other holding onto the SOUL beside his chest. His red eyes glare down at Wolf, filled with betrayal as a red scarf-cape rests around his neck. Wolf thinks it looks familiar somehow; where did he see that before…?

  
“How COULD you?” Xeno spits down at Wolf, who is in too much shock to formulate any kind of response. It’s been so long since he’s heard that kind of rage in Xeno’s voice… it’s quite a rare occurrence.

  
“What the fuck were you THINKING?!” Xeno roars at the wolf. “Why would you DO this?! What did you GAIN from it all?! And who the hell even ARE you?! I don’t know who the fuck you are, because you are NOT Wolfie! There is absolutely NO WAY that the Wolfie I know would do this! What the FUCK did that goddamn flower tell you?! Whatever he said, it’s a fucking LIE! HE’S A LIAR AND I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU’D TRUST ANYTHING HE SAID!”

  
Xeno presses down forcefully on Wolf’s chest, pushing the air right out of his lungs and making him gasp for air for a moment. “Well?” Xeno growls, aiming the end of his stick down at his friend on the ground. “Defend yourself! Tell me why you did this! Tell me why you murdered them all! Tell me…” He lowers his stick, then pulls the scarf-cape off his neck and holds it out towards Wolf’s face. “Tell me what HE did to deserve this!” Xeno roars, tears starting to sneak into Xeno’s eyes. “He was always so nice and innocent and kind and… and… and I swear, Wolf… or whoever you are… if you try and tell me that he attacked you, I… haha! Oh, that’s fucking RICH! Papyrus? Attack someone? Sure, maybe, but attack to KILL? He would literally NEVER do something like that! We had a play fight! He wouldn’t have actually killed me, and I’m sure he wouldn’t have killed you either! So please enlighten me on what, exactly, PAPYRUS did deserve what you did to him!”

  
Xeno lets out a scream of frustration as he violently tosses the scarf-cape into the shadows, stepping off of Wolf and walking over towards the back end of the room, being consumed by the shadows. “And Sans…” he continues as tears start to fall from his eyes. “Why SANS?! You and him should have gotten along so well! I told him so much about you and explained every reason why you and him would absolutely LOVE each other! And then you meet each other and kill his brother, then kill him too?! What the fuck is your problem?!” He clutches the faintly-glowing SOUL in his hand, giving it slight squeezes as if it’s a stress ball. “I just… I just don’t understand WHAT you were THINKING through all of this… it took me five days to make it all the way through the Underground, and in one night, you waltz in here and go through the whole place, murdering literally everyone you see! Why?! What good did it do you?! What good could have POSSIBLY come out of all this?!”

  
As Wolf lets the words sink in, he continues to lay on the floor of golden flowers in silence and reflection. He can barely believe this is Xeno who is confronting him like this. Wolf slowly rises to his feet, holding onto Shadowspear as he stares coldly at the ground between them. “…You wouldn’t understand me if I told you what good came out of this,” he says in a quiet and monotone voice that starts to fill up with madness the more he speaks. “Xeno, you don’t get it. You just don’t GET it. If you knew the things that I know… if you were self-aware like I am, I bet you’d be dead where you stand. You wouldn’t be able to handle the truth about what we are. You’d kill yourself over it. But oh wait, I bet our Creator wouldn’t let you, huh? He’d force you to stay alive because he likes you. He’d keep you alive because if you died then that would be the ultimate end for you. He’d make you keep on going despite you being miserable and suicidal over what you are. I keep this a secret to protect you, because I don’t wanna see you suffer like I am. I suffer so that you don’t have to, Xeno. Don’t try and pry this secret from me any more than I’ve already said, okay? In this case, ignorance truly is bliss. Just accept that I’m doing this for the good of everyone in the multiverse. I WILL make him cut the strings off of us someday. I just gotta piss him off more… and more… and MORE… AND…”

  
A sudden thought of darkness creeps into his mind, making his eyes go wide as he looks over at Xeno in the shadows. “And… and… oh. Oh, well then…” A hesitant smirk appears on his face, wavering in uncertainty as half of him urges him on and the other half begs him not to do it. “Oh, I just…” he says, the tone in his voice completely shifted to an almost amused one. “I just thought of something that… that would REALLY piss him off, actually. Ahaha… oh yeah, I can just FEEL the strings he’s got wrapped around me tugging me back from this. He knows what I’m thinking here. He KNOWS that I could do it. He knows that I… that I…” His blue eyes glow with a black energy for a moment as he stares at Xeno’s concealed form, some kind of lustful desire for evil in his expression. He raises a shaking finger to point at Xeno, whose red eyes soften just slightly as his rage starts to turn into heartache.

  
“…I could kill you, y’know.”

  
“ **No.** ”

  
That voice again. The voice with no face. The voice of the Creator. _If only I knew your name,_ Wolf thinks as he glances up at the shadow-covered ceiling. “Oh, look. You think you can stop me. Wow, I can’t believe my ears. You’ve never spoken to me before today. I’ve really been getting places, haven’t I? Haha…” He spreads out his arms as he looks up at the sky. “Look at me. Look at what you’ve created. Do you see what I’ve become? This is your own goddamn fault. You made me like this, y’know. YOU started all this when you created me. Stop trying to pretend you don’t know what you’ve done. You’re just as much of a monster as your creation is.” Wolf’s eyes dart back down to Xeno, whose barely-visible form is staring in confusion and worry at Wolf. The demon snickers as he stares into Xeno’s eyes.

  
“Are you scared yet?” He asks tauntingly, an insane smile on his face. “You should be. I am too. I’m absolutely terrified by myself, Xe. Do you wanna know a secret? I have no idea what I’m doing! Who knows if I’m even in control of my actions! I wanna think I am, but am I really? I DON’T EVEN KNOW! Does it matter? If I kill you, I’d know that it would be me in control. I know that the Creator would never make me kill you, so I REALLY should just do it! It’ll be the first time in my existence that I’ll know for a fact that the one in control is ME!”

  
The shadows seem to retreat to the walls, covering the world in the darkness of the battle scene. Xeno gasps in shock as he clutches Asgore’s SOUL close to him to keep it safe as Wolf stands across the room, his head lowered slightly. He holds out his spear to his side as red cracks start to form in the world.

  
“I’m kind of a power-hungry freak, huh?” Wolf laughs, unsure who he’s really talking to at this point. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m insane, but I’m also the only one in this multiverse who seems to know the truth about everything. Maybe that’s why I’m not dead yet. If I was sane, I’d just kill myself. But no. I’d rather try and take control from the Creator. I’m a fucking maniac, Xe. I can’t believe it took this long for you to become aware of this.”

  
Suddenly, the cracks in the shadowy ground makes the entire word break apart, sending red-tipped shards of shadows into the air, sending them both into a pure white world similar to when Xeno faced off against Flowey, but full of white instead of black. Silence descends upon the scene, and the world fades right back into black as if nature can’t figure out what it’s supposed to do at the moment.

  
The world is ending; there’s nothing left. The balance of the world itself has been thrown out of wack by the interference from the creatures of another universe. Nature itself can barely even handle the black and white battle scene it usually has. Everything is coming to its end... but the Earth refused to die, and with hope and determination it kept itself alive. The sound of shattered glass suddenly resounds throughout the darkness and glittering magic shards start to rain down from the sky, falling to the dark ground and sinking down into it like its quicksand. The monsters of the Underground are gone; the barrier has nothing to conceal. It broke itself under the pressure of nature's imbalance and the Earth’s desire to keep itself together. A rainbow glint of Saikik flows from Wolf's eyes for a moment as his icy gaze remains fixed on Xeno. The smirk on his face shows just a twinge of regret as the battle scene finally forms and settles. Wolf turns and walks to the doorway, reaching down to pick up the SAVE point glittering just outside the room. He lifts it to his chest and carries it back into the room. Both Xeno’s and Wolf’s SAVE files appears before them as Wolf raises Shadowspear to the sky in his left hand, carrying the SAVE point in his right. He glances at Xeno and whispers to him in an almost awestruck tone.

  
“Why the hell are you friends with me…?”

  
With the barrier broken down and the Saikik suppression gone, one powerful swing from Wolf’s spear sends out a curved beam of Dark Saikik to cut through both of their SAVE files while he crushes the glittering yellow star in his hand. He releases the remains of the broken SAVE point and lets it drift to the floor, then holds his hand behind his back with his other arm extended with his weapon in his claws.

 

**Your best friend attacks.**

 

Xeno holds Asgore’s SOUL close to his chest as he prepares himself for the battle to come. He can hardly believe that this is happening. His best friend who had saved him countless times, was going to tray and kill him now? “This is unreal…” he whispers to in awe.

  
With a blast of Dark Saikik, the throne is completely obliterated, broken pieces of it being flung into the air and raining down around them. Xeno covers his face to protect himself, then looks over at Wolf, whose eyes glow in the rainbow colors of Saikik energy for a moment before returning to a frozen blue. “I’ll give you one chance to run, Xe,” he says in a quiet but menacing tone. “It’s your turn. Make me proud.”

  
Xeno stares at his friend for a moment, then at Asgore’s SOUL, then at his own SOUL floating out before him. ”…Fine.” He holds out his free hand towards Wolf, pointing his stick towards him as his own eye glows green. He gives his friend a firm stare of determination and readies a Wind Saikik attack. “I’ll impress you then.”

  
Green energy flows into his hand, then is released through the end of the stick towards Wolf as a Saikik Galestorm, sending blades of wind at the wolf. His eyes go wide in shock for a moment; he wasn’t expecting Xeno to fight back. Wolf spreads his wings and flies into the air, zipping around between the wind blades. His eye glows yellow as he uses Saikik Thunderblast to envelop himself in electricity, using the current of energy to help him move faster through the blades. As he slips flawlessly through the attack, he plops his feet back onto the ground and lets the Saikik fade. He smirks for a moment, almost amused by Xeno’s attempt to fight him. “Well, that wasn’t what I was expecting, but this works just fine I suppose. By all means, Xe. Impress me. Do your best.”

  
A black shine of light runs through Wolf’s eyes as he raises his spear, using it almost as a lightning rod for Saikik energy. He draws in a large amount of black energy through his raised weapon that coalesces in his free right hand. With a quick flick of his wrist, the energy is directed towards Xeno. It surrounds him with swirling shadows, that starts to condense around him, dragging him into a Saikik Abyss of darkness that attempts to cling to his SOUL. He doesn’t react at first, too shocked to think clearly, but once his mind snaps back to reality he starts to move around to dodge the shadows collapsing around him. The shadows lash out at his SOUL, but he slips around, under, and above them, then manages to hop out of a thin crack in the swirls. He looks over at Wolf, who has a shocked expression on his face. “How the fuck…?” He whispers to himself in confusion and surprise that Xeno didn’t just die.

  
In swift retaliation, Xeno pulls in some more green energy that coalesces into a thick ball of swirling mist and violent winds above his hand. He pulls his arm back, then uses the stick to fling the ball at Wolf. “I’m not losing to YOU of all people!” He growls as he watches Wolf slash his spear at the ball to knock it away, but accidentally makes it explode in front of him, sending the violent winds and suffocating mists his way. He lets out a surprised wolf noise as he gets flung backwards and falls onto his side. He pulls up a Saikik Barrier to protect himself as fast as possible, but he is actually pretty bad at defense Saikik so it breaks almost immediately.

  
As the storm settles, Wolf rises to his feet again, wiping some blood from his lips. “Gah… don’t see Wind Saikik too often,” he says with a slight chuckle in his voice. “Forgot about Weatherbomb. Don’t worry, Xe. I won’t forget next time though. I won’t fall for THAT again.”

  
Wolf uses Shadowspear to pull in more black energy, then flings a mass of darkness into the air above them. A vast expanse of darkness spreads out above the throne room, then with one quick movement of his hand being snapped downward, the mass of shadows falls down upon the scene. Xeno pulls up a powerful Saikik Barrier above his SOUL to protect himself from the shadows threatening to consume him. He growls as he struggles to hold the barrier up as the shadows press downward with incredible force. Xeno places his hands under the rectangular barrier and tries forcefully lifting it upwards against the pressure. The shadows slide off the sides of the barrier and fall to the floor where they get absorbed by the empty-looking blackness. Finally, the Saikik Shadowfall attack ends as the last drops of shadows rolls off Xeno's barrier and seeps into the ground. Xeno throws the barrier off and lowers his hands to take a momentary breather. “Oh god...” he breathes out, his arms now tired from holding the barrier up.

  
But he knows he doesn’t have time to relax. He darts his eyes up at Wolf, who is once again shocked that Xeno survived the attack. “Xe, what the fuck happened to YOU to make you learn how to use Saikik so well?” Xeno grimaces as he prepares another Wind Saikik attack. “And what the fuck happened to YOU to turn you into a heartless bastard?!” He spits.

  
Xeno sends out a ghostly wind from his stick-staff that pools in the air, turning into the ghost of a certain monster who died in this room not too long ago. The Saikik Phenomenon creates a heavy deluge of ghostly winds from the sky, mimicking an certain fire rain attack he had attempted on Xeno when they fought. Wolf slips in between the rain of wind embers and sends a small blast of flames at the spirit, whose form then dissipates and fades away, making the attack end.

  
“Xe, I don’t get it,” Wolf says, pulling in some more Dark Saikik energy. “You’ve been so against fighting for so long. You never wanted to hurt anyone. That’s why you were never good at attack Saikik. You never wanted to cause anyone pain. When did you get so good at this? Why? This didn’t just pop up now. That doesn’t just HAPPEN. You practiced. You came PREPARED. You KNOW what you’re doing. What caused this, then? How are you... Just how…?” He sends out a whip of darkness at Xeno, attempting to wrap a Blinding Shadow around him. Xeno dances around the snake-like whip as it swings around him. When it attempts to coil around him, he uses his wings to fly up and out of the way. When he lands again, the whip tries to slam down on him, but he hops out of the way each time. Wolf roars as he directs the whip to lunge out quickly, but Xeno once again dodges it and it simply gets caught in the wall behind him and dissipates. “How are you AVOIDING all this?!” Wolf exclaims in awe and confusion. “This is insane!”

  
Xeno decides to switch things up a bit and start using one of his favorite attack Saikik types now: Ground/Nature Saikik. He pulls some orange energy into his stick as he looks over at Wolf. “I’ll tell you why I learned all this,” he says as he sends a shockwave of energy into the ground that flows through it towards Wolf. Wolf hops up into the air as the energy reaches where his feet were. The Terrashocks send sudden bursts of rocks and stones out of the ground towards Wolf, who darts around in the air to dodge the random shots aimed around him.

  
“Unlike you,” Xeno says as he keeps his eyes focused on Wolf. “I actually saw what that goddamn flower is and fought it. Did you even kill him? I bet you didn’t. I bet, of all people, HE’S the one you spared.” The attack ends and Wolf drops himself back onto the ground, looking over at the enraged Xeno.

  
“HE’S the REAL monster of the Underground, Wolfie!” Xeno growls. “No, not Wolfie. I don’t know who you are.” He pauses for a moment, watching as Wolf prepares another attack, his eye glowing blue for Ice/Water Saikik. “...Oh, no.” Xeno continues. “I think I get it. You’re really NOT Wolfie, are you? I think I know who you are. How could I not have caught onto it yet?” He hops out of the way of a Saikik Icicle Shot, the large and sharpened icicle spear colliding with the wall behind him and shattering. Wolf prepares a couple more that Xeno prepares to counter with his own Saikik. “Can’t believe it took me so long to catch onto it. I was so close to it all this time, wasn’t I?”

  
As the next couple icicles are shot towards him, Xeno raises his stick and a large wall of coiled vines, leaves and branches sprout from the ground to block the attack, the ice making dents in the overgrowth before shattering into glittering light blue shards before disappearing again. “I get it. You outright ARE Flowey, AREN’T you? You mother fucking FRIEND KILLER!!”

  
Wolf blinks in shock for a moment as he watches Xeno slam his stick on the ground in rage, breaking it in half with a quick snap. “You STOLE him, DIDN'T you?!” He roars as he grabs his own SOUL and holds both his and Asgore’s SOULs before him. “You’ve crawled into his mind and took over, am I right?! You stuck those disgusting vines and shit into his brain and have been USING him to kill them all, didn’t you?! I was WONDERING where you went after the SOULs took away your powers!” He looks back and forth between the two SOULs a few times as he speaks. “I should have done something more, shouldn’t I? I should have used my Saikik to kill you back then. I should have done the finishing blow on you while the SOULs were working their magic. I should have KILLED you! I was a fucking IDIOT!” He looks back up at Wolf, tears falling from his eyes. “Just SAY it! It’s true! I AM an idiot for letting you live like that! I don’t know WHAT I was thinking!”

  
Wolf stares into Xeno’s eyes, filled with pain and betrayal as he glares at Wolf. “…Xe, you’ve got it all wrong,” he says, tapping Shadowspear against the ground. “This… is just a side of me you’ve never seen. You’ve never seen me like this before, but this is more ME than the me you usually see. Because I know that I’M in control right now.”

  
Xeno slowly shakes his head as he hears what his friend says, but doesn’t believe a word of it. “No. No, you’re NOT. If this was you, I’d have NEVER have become your friend.” Wolf opens his mouth to speak, but Xeno cuts him off, holding the two SOULs in his hands close together. “NO, SHUT UP. Don’t give me any of your bullshit right now. Don’t say ‘I’ve changed’ or ‘that wasn’t really me’ or whatever the hell you wanna say. You are NOT the Wolfie that I know. And if you somehow ARE him...”

  
Suddenly, he smashes the two SOULs together and a bright burst of purple and white light emanates from the collision. Wolf covers his eyes at the blinding flash, then blinks and lowers his arm as he looks at Xeno. Now, his clothes are slightly ripped up at the edges and his teeth have grown sharper, snarling at Wolf. His face has taken on a slightly more animalistic look and his antennae are just a bit longer now. A black liquid that looks similar to LOVE is now covering his arms and legs where his gloves and boots were. At first, Wolf couldn’t figure out what just happened. But as he looks at Xeno’s SOUL in his hand, purple but with a new white glow to it, Wolf realizes what just happened.

  
He absorbed Asgore’s SOUL.

  
Xeno raises his other hand, a bright light of Saikik energy glowing above his LOVE-covered claws. “I’ve gotta knock some sense back into you!" He snarls, glaring down into Wolf’s awestruck eyes.

 

**You feel your strings tugging on your SOUL.**

 

Wolf can feel his Creator’s strings pulling him back, begging him to stop doing this. He raises his spear out before him and shoots out a Saikik Flame Bullet from the tip, trying his best to keep a firm expression, but his determination is beginning to waver and fall apart. He wants to blame his Creator for his determination’s decay, but deep down he knows that it’s his own regrets dragging him down too at this point. As he watches Xeno effortlessly step out of the way of the Flame Bullets, Wolf wonders to himself…

  
Does he really want to go through with this?

  
_No,_ he growls in his mind, watching as Xeno roars and directs his Saikik to create large Thorn Whips protrude from the ground around them and try and slam down on Wolf. Wolf darts through the maze of vines, slashing through the ones that get in his way. _I refuse to let the Creator win._

  
He swings his spear around him, sending out a huge Saikik Fireblaze that burns up all the vines Xeno created. He sends another swing of flames at Xeno, whose eye glimmers a bright green as he swings his hand, swiftly summoning his own attack. Green energy condenses in the air, creating arrowhead-shaped rocks with vines around them that he shoots through the flames before flying up out of the way. The arrow rocks he sent through the flames catch on fire as they pass through the attack. Wolf was completely caught off guard by this, not at all expecting a retaliation like that. He sucks in sharp breaths of pain as an arrow pierces his SOUL, then another cuts into his skin, then another and another… blood drips onto the black ground from his wounds as he glares up at Xeno, hovering in the sky before the demon.

  
“I'll protect our hopes and dreams from you power-hungry control freak!” He snarls as he prepares a Light Saikik attack. Wolf holds his spear out in defense as Xeno swings his arm to the sky, summoning bright lights above them. He cries out in determination as he sends a storm of meteors down towards him. The Meteor Shower attack rains down on Wolf, who uses Shadowspear to knock away the ones that come too close to him. Xeno refuses to let up as he sends a haze of stardust towards Wolf, who tries to use Wind Saikik to blow the Stardust Break attack away before it Xeno could get it off. Xeno quickly sends another wave of rock-arrows down at Wolf, who runs across the room as he dodges the attack.

  
“You thought you could get away with this, didn’t you?” Xeno growls as his eyes follow Wolf dashing around the ground on all fours. “You thought you could do this freely? You think you’re above consequences? Whether you’re Wolfie or not, I can’t believe that ANYONE would have the guts to do something like this. Don’t you know what karma is? Did you not even think that something could go wrong? Did you really think that you’re a god or something?” He lowers his arm, staring at his SOUL in his hand with a look of painful reflection in his eyes. “If you ARE Wolf… did you really think I’d be okay with what you’ve done under ANY circumstances…?”

  
One of Wolf’s paws slips on a flower in the garden of the room, making him stumble slightly but he manages to catch himself. He stops running around as the attack slows to a halt, then stands back up and looks at Xeno through wavering eyes. Xeno takes a slow breath and shifts his gaze down at Wolf. “Even if this place WAS really dangerous… and I got captured or killed or something… why would you think that… that GENOCIDE is okay…? Wolfie… Haven’t we been through this once before? You SAVED me from this kind of thing last time. So why…?” He holds out his arms in confusion and raises his voice. “Why the hell are you the CAUSE of it this time?!”

  
Blue eyes stare up at Xeno’s, melting down into a blank stare at the words Xeno said. “…Xe, don’t you remember what I said?” He mumbles so quietly that Xeno can barely hear him. “You. Wouldn’t. Get it. You just wouldn’t understand if I explained it to you. And that was different than this. THIS is genocide for a good cause. A REAL cause. A cause that could very well destroy our entire multiverse, but if we all suddenly cease to exist, then it wouldn’t be painful. Everything would just…” He holds his hands out beside him. “Fwoosh. Poof. Fade into nothingness. If we’re not real anyway, what does it matter if we cease to exist at all? Who would care? We certainly wouldn’t because we wouldn’t EXIST to acknowledge it. So sure, a few people have to suffer for it. The ultimate end is one of two options: we either gain our freedom from the Creator, or we all cease to exist entirely. To be honest, what does it matter? Either option seems pretty nice. So how about you sit still for a moment? I’ll try and make this quick if you do.”

  
Wolf growls loudly, baring his fangs as he swings his arms out to create a mist of stardust around him that condenses into Starmatter bullets. Xeno recognizes the attack immediately to be Saikik Starshard, the wolf’s signature Saikik attack. He shoots himself up higher as he watches Wolf shoot the Starmatter shards at him, homing in on him. Xeno zips to the side as the shards approach him, making a few of them collide with one another and turn back into dust. He shoots off again as the remaining shards chase him through the air of the room, more shards being created by Wolf every few seconds.

  
It’s Wolf’s turn to be relentless in this fight, continuously creating and shooting Starshards at Xeno without giving him a moment’s rest. Beads of sweat run down Xeno’s face as he dances about in the air, silently wishing they were outside so that he had more room to fly. Luckily, the throne room is quite large, but there just isn’t enough space for this. A few bullets manage to slice into his SOUL, making him let out quick growls of pain. Wolf’s Starshard attack is absolutely devastating.

  
In a desperate attempt to end this fight, Xeno roars out as he tries something different: Borderline Breaking. It’s sometimes  used for teleporting to another space in the same universe, and he’s seen Wolf do it before on occasions, although it tends to take a lot out of you. Xeno raises his arm to slice at the air, clawing open a pathway through space, flinging himself into it and closing it after a few Starshards follow him through. Wolf flinches and gasps in shock, unable to process what just happened quick enough before the pathway’s end opens up behind him Xeno zips up after flying out of it. Wolf turns around upon hearing the pathway open just to get impaled in the SOUL and chest by his own attack. His mouth opens wide in shock at the trick, time seeming to slow down as he falls backwards, Shadowspear slipping through his claws and being flung out before him, clinging onto the floor and sliding through the flower field. He stumbles backwards, clutching at his wounded chest that drips bright red blood onto the flowers crumpled and trampled at his feet. “Gah…” he groans in pain.

  
Before he could even look for where Xeno is, he feels Xeno crash into him from behind, shoving them both towards the window and accidentally smashing right through it, flinging broken glass outward as they both fall out of the throne room. Xeno catches himself and keeps himself hovering in midair as Wolf falls to the ground below them, colliding with the cold, hard pavement and rolling across the desolate ground, leaving a trail of blood smeared across the dust-covered roads. He moans out in agony as he lays on his side, struggling to stand back up but the pain from his glass-filled skin and multitude of broken bones renders his attempts futile.

  
He grunts in annoyance as he hears Xeno’s feet plant themselves onto the ground behind him. “Fine,” Wolf spits as he looks down at the ground. “You can stay alive. Whatever. Or just... just kill me. I’ve already lost enough times. My pride should be nonexistent at this point anyway. I don’t know how I’ve still managed to stay so high and mighty after dying so many times. Shouldn’t I know by now that I can’t win every battle?” His eyes soften slightly, the blue of his eyes unchanging but nonetheless seeming more somber than cold. “And I know...” he whispers to himself. “...that this is a battle I can’t win, huh?”

  
He grunts in pain as he feels Xeno grab his shoulder and forcefully roll him onto his back. Xeno kneels down beside him and snatches up Wolf’s rainbow SOUL, coated and infused with venomous LOVE. Xeno glares down at Wolf, his red eyes burning with a passion of rage that Wolf has seen in his own eyes many times but only rarely in Xeno’s. “Isn’t there some way I️ can get through to you again?” he snaps as he holds tightly onto Wolf’s SOUL with both hands. “You’ve become a real monster! You’re terrible! God, you… I hate what you’ve become and I️ hate the things you’ve done. Are you satisfied yet? Are you happy now? You’ve ruined everything. And how am I supposed to fix it? I can’t just leave this alone now!”

  
Xeno suddenly digs his claws into Wolf’s SOUL, pushing them underneath the hardened, crusty LOVE concealing the vibrant colors. Wolf howls in pain as Xeno starts to rip it off, a loud squishing noise being made from the gooey LOVE underneath the hardened bits clinging to the crust and the SOUL’s surface as Xeno painfully pries off the top layer. He wipes off the melted black substance underneath the layer of crust, the smell of rotten corpses permeating the air as the LOVE drips off the SOUL and reveals the rainbow colors underneath.

  
“I’m here for everyone you killed!” Xeno growls over Wolf’s cries as he carefully and meticulously digs his fingers into the pockets of LOVE inside Wolf’s SOUL, coaxing the thick goo out with his claws. “I’m here for them! I’m here to keep their hope alive! I’m here to make their nightmares turn into happy dreams again! I’m here to fix what YOU broke! I'm here to put an end to your insanity!”

  
As Xeno’s claws dig into the rainbow SOUL, Wolf grunts and grits his teeth in an attempt to stifle his noises of misery. He squeezes his eyes shut, but manages to crack one open to look at Xeno for a moment while he manages to squeeze out “S-so this is revenge, huh?” Xeno’s purification pauses for a moment while he thinks, but he soon returns to pulling out long, worm-like strings of throbbing LOVE from the wolf’s SOUL. He pulls out a particularly long one and holds it out in front of him, staring at its wriggling and pulsating form hanging from his fingers with a shocked and disgusted expression. The LOVE almost looks alive as it squirms around in Xeno’s fingers like this.

  
“Yes...” He flings the LOVE string away with a quiet noise of disgust. “…and no. It’s revenge for them, yes. But now you’re saying that you want to bring about the end of everything? You want to destroy the entire multiverse?! I’ve heard some pretty fucking insane plans before, but THAT'S gotta be the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard yet.” He ceases his relentless tearing away at Wolf’s SOUL for a moment to stare down at him with an incredulous and enraged expression. “What kind of sadistic, masochistic mother fucker would ever DREAM of trying to destroy the MULTIVERSE?! I've heard of destroying universes, but you...! You want to bring about complete multiversal annihilation?! You think you could even do that?! That’s KIND OF impossible! Don’t delude yourself into thinking you can do it!”

  
Wolf chuckles weakly as he licks at his teeth inside his mouth, the metallic taste of blood on his tongue tasting absolutely delightful and giving him some form of repose in this purifying torture. He glances down at his SOUL, noticing that it looks significantly smaller and almost deflated now as the pockets of LOVE that were once full are now being emptied. Seems like LOVE doesn’t just cover the SOUL; it eats away at it. “So, Xe,” He says with a quiet yet cocky laugh. “If it’s so impossible, why bother trying to stop me?” Xeno slams his fist down on Wolf’s chest in response, knocking the air from his lungs and making him cough up blood that rolls down the side of his lips.

  
“Because you’re RUINING EVERYONE'S LIFE!!” Xeno exclaims angrily as he begins to dig into the SOUL again, the reeking stench of death and slick sounds of slimy LOVE sloshing and squishing around getting worse and worse the deeper he gets into it. “You DESTROYED this place! If you get access to the rest of the multiverse, your destruction and evil will just spread! I CAN'T let you do that! So yes. This is revenge. This is payback. This is karma. But I'm also being their guardian. I’m being the guardian of the rest of the multiverse. The guardian of their hopes, dreams, and desires.”

  
Wolf starts to feel his body and SOUL go numb as more and more LOVE gets pulled out of him, his SOUL now looking incredibly thin and fragile. He knows that he’ll die if Xeno keeps this up... but in reality, could that be a good thing? Perhaps that’s for the best. Wolf knows all too well he deserves it, after all. He takes a sharp breath, then lets a small smirk creep onto his face as his eyes fall shut peacefully. “...I didn't think you had it in you, Xe.”

  
Xeno pauses as he sees Wolf close his eyes. He feels his rage start to turn into worry as he watches Wolf completely accept his fate. He’s given up, it seems. That’s so unlike him. “...Wolf?”

  
...

  
Wolf’s eyes slowly crack open again, but only slightly. “Y'know... you loved me once,” he speaks quietly and full of wistful tranquility. “I don't forget things like that. And see, I've been wondering...” He darts his eyes to stare into Xeno’s. “What do you think of me now? Now that you've seen what I've done... now that you've seen... who I've become... how I've accepted my heretic side as me... how I've merged with my darkness... now that you've somehow lived long enough to see your best friend become the villain... tell me, Xe. Do you still care about me? In your eyes, am I still your friend? Do you still admire me? Do you still look up to me? Would you still trust in me to save you? ...Do you still love me?”

  
Xeno’s quiet red eyes simply stare down at Wolf in silence, an expression of distress gracing his face that’s stained with his smeared red and black makeup. Wolf smirks and lets out a quick chuckle before his expression fades into bitter pessimism.

  
“...Yes, I suspected that. You don’t. Now you're wondering if that bothers me, right? Ha. No. I truthfully don't care either way, but I was curious. I mean, why would I care about anything when I know we don’t have control over what we do?” His eyes dart to his wrist, envisioning the red strings tied securely around him. “What we feel, what we think, what we say and do... I don’t even believe anything that comes from my own mouth half the time. Who's really in control here? What’s his name? Who is the one that caused all of this? Who's really pulling the strings?”

  
A quick glance up at Xeno’s concerned and disturbed expression makes Wolf let out a little sigh. “...You really don’t get it, huh? Heh. Guess I didn’t expect you to. We're all just characters in a twisted story thought up by some malicious god-like Creator. Why would he possibly allow YOU to know his name, or even of his existence?” He lets his eyes fall shut again as he relaxes on the ground, fully accepting and almost welcoming his ultimate end. “But I guess none of that matters anyway. Lets get down to business I suppose. I'll return to our fictional reality for a while. It’s a bit more comforting to pretend I don’t know I'm fake than to continuously have it clawing at my sanity anyway.” He blinks a couple times, letting a smile cross his grim countenance once more. “So, now that I’ve fucked everything up, I bet you’re done with me, aren’t you? You want nothing to do with me now, do you? You’ll head back home and tell them all that I was killed by monsters. Yeah, that’s what you should do, Xe. I’m ready for it all to end, anyway. You deserve better than me. God, I just love you so much…” He forces the tears in his eyes down with a quiet chuckle. “But, eh… You don’t love me anymore. I’m not your friend, huh? I don’t blame you, Xe. I understand it. I understand it all. So, you should just end it. End it all, Xe. I️m ready for my story to by over now. Honestly,I️ could kill myself at any time, but the fact is I️ won’t. I️ won’t end myself. Not out of fear, but out of pride. I’d feel unsatisfied if I️ did that. I’d be unhappy if I️ killed myself. At least if it’s you, I️ know it’s for a fine cause. Perhaps I️ am just insane. Perhaps this all… is real and I’m just… overthinking things like I️ tend to do. And if that’s the case, then I’ve just ruined this Underground for absolutely nothing. Everything that I️ feel pulling me back could very easily be explained by my conscience. I️ don’t know why I️ keep thinking there really is something else out there… when there probably isn’t and I’m just too conceited to admit I’m wrong. I️ just wanna show everyone up on this so I️ can say I️ was right. I’m terrible, Xe. Seriously… why WERE you friends with me?”

  
Xeno blinks back his tears, shaking his head slowly as he starts to recall that this IS Wolfie, his best friend... He lets his eyes fall shut as he deliberately allows himself slip into his daydreams. He knows what he SHOULD do in his situation… or should he? He doesn’t want to let anyone else get hurt. He doesn’t want to hurt anyone, but Wolf has gone completely insane. _Help me…_ he thinks, clutching tightly to Wolf’s practically empty SOUL in his claws. _I just… I’m scared now… please, I just… I want someone to say some kind of… words of comfort to me now… what do I do?_

 

**You called for help… And everyone came.**

 

“My child!” A familiar and motherly voice echoes in his mind. “Please, show him some mercy! Do not fight hatred with more hatred! The world is full of violence enough as it is, and if it continues like that it never really ends! Please, my child! Please spare your friend!”

  
“XENO! PLEASE DON'T HURT WOLFIE! EVEN AFTER ALL THIS, I STILL BELIEVE HE CAN BE A GOOD PERSON! IF HE WAS YOUR FRIEND EVER, THEN THERE'S NO WAY HE CAN REALLY BE THAT MEAN! MAYBE HE'S JUST HUNGRY! NYEH HEH HEH!”

  
“He’s a horrible creature that deserves a fucking punch in the face full of heroic justice! But... since my attempts at killing him didn’t work, maybe your stupid mercy shit tactic might actually do the trick here.”

  
“I-I don’t really, um... know much about all this, but... b-but I think Undyne just... d-didn’t know of any other way to stop him. B-b-but... if it’s you, I, um... think there’s a better way to, uh, do this... b-because you two... are friends...”

  
“Oh darling, PLEASE don’t tell me you’re honestly considering KILLING him, are you? That’s UNDYNE'S job; not YOURS! You’re far too sweet to do something like that! Please don’t mess up your fabulous sweetness, darling!”

  
“Xeno... it was nice to meet you. Gosh... I really wish we could have talked more than we did. You... really have shown me just how important it is to be merciful. You... believe it or not, you brought so much hope back to the Underground. The one who ruined it... is him. It isn’t your fault... but it will be your burden to bear if you kill him, because that will be on your hands entirely. Please, Xeno. Keep hope alive... and be merciful."

  
"i'm sorry that everything had to turn out this way... but... dammit... god fucking dammit! don’t do this, okay? things are really fucked up right now, everything’s kinda gone to shit, i know, but… look, i promise...

  
everything's gonna be alright!

  
xeno!

  
stay determined..."

 

Xeno releases Wolf’s SOUL from his grip and feels his body return to normal after the changes that took place through absorbing Asgore’s SOUL. Wolf blinks weakly in curiosity as he slowly moves his eyes over Xeno’s face, watching him slowly shake his head. “…You speak like you really think I’m gonna kill you.”

 

**Xeno is sparing you.**

 

He leans down over Wolf’s broken body to give him a gentle little kiss, making Wolf’s eyes go wide in surprise. As Xeno pulls back from the kiss, Wolf looks up at him with a curious expression, searching Xeno’s face for signs of this being a trick of some kind…

  
But that’s not Xeno’s way of doing things, is it?

  
Xeno looks down and away from Wolf, letting out a quiet sigh. “I know you, Wolfie,” he whispers, wiping at the tears forming in his eyes. “I can’t kill my best friend. I can’t kill you… I love you still. You broke a lot of things last night, Wolfie, including my heart. But I’ve become a lot stronger while I was here, and I won’t be in danger of dying of a broken heart anymore. I don’t want to break us apart. I don’t want to let YOU break us apart. I don’t want to break YOU. I don’t want to KILL you. I want to FIX you. I want to SAVE you. I want you to CONTINUE on the path you WERE going down before all of this happened. I wanna help you turn around and walk with you down that path. Where are your colors, Wolf? Where is your rainbow now? Where’s the rainbow after the storm? How could you just give up and refuse to keep shining like you usually do? I wanna see your vibrant hues again! I wanna see you paint everything with super saturated smiles again! I wanna hear you laugh overflowing with optimism again! Don’t change that all now! Don’t ruin everything now! Don’t let those colors fade away yet! I don’t think I’d be able to live if I saw you someday without that rainbow tail that waves in the gentle wind behind you when we sit on top of your castle and watch the sky change colors in the sunrise! Black, to purple, to red, to orange, to gold, to green, to blue… I don’t think I could watch the sunrise ever again if you died right now… or if your body survived but had all its color drained from it… It’d be like I made myself go colorblind if I killed you here! So you can tell me I’m an idiot for keeping hope alive all you want… but I REFUSE to let you die!”

  
He rises to his feet as the black and white battle scene fades away and the colors of the world rush back to life. He turns away from Wolf, burying his face in his hands while he sobs quietly. Wolf can barely move at this point, but through sheer willpower and determination he manages to sit himself up, hearing his bones crack and feeling his muscles and heart aching. He weakly wipes away the tears in his eyes with his shaking hand, then struggles to push himself to his feet. Xeno, hearing the shifting of Wolf’s body, turns around to see him struggling. He walks over and holds Wolf’s arms to help him to his feet. Wolf then makes a motion telling Xeno to let him go so he does so, watching with worried eyes as Wolf stumbles slightly but manages to stay standing on his own. “…You’re way too kind, Xe,” he mumbles. “That’s really gonna get you killed one day.” Xeno pauses at that comment, but shrugs as hints of a smile appear on his face.

  
“And I’m okay with that.”

  
Wolf shoots Xeno a look, but can’t help but smile slightly. “…heh. Okay then. Fair enough, Xe. If that’s the case… I guess this is gonna wrap up this story, huh? This must be the end of the last chapter… or that was the final boss fight… or the last episode of the series… whatever medium this is being shown in, I guess this is the finale of it all; the story’s denouement. Well then… What do you say we PACK up and head home?” He gives Xeno a playful wink, but then takes a moment to explain when Xeno doesn’t laugh. “…Get it? ‘Cuz I’m a wolf and wolves... have...packs... and stuff.”

  
A small chuckle turns into a laugh from Xeno at that comment. “Oh my god, Wolfie…” he laughs. “Really? That was ABSOLUTELY terrible! I love it!” He reaches over to give Wolf a gentle hug, being careful not to hurt him anymore than he already has. Wolf chuckles slightly at the hug, too weak to hug back. “Thanks for being gentle, Xe. I’ve been PUNished enough, I guess.” Xeno pulls back from the hug and playfully nudges Wolf’s shoulder. “Wow, you’re LITERALLY the worst! It’s great that you’re getting back to your normal self already!” He looks up at the broken window the fell from. “Shadowspear is still up there, huh? I’ll just go grab that for you real quick, then… we’ll head back, I guess.” He hates to leave this place in such a state of disarray, but… he really doesn’t have much of a choice. And honestly…

  
He’d rather not think too much more about Wolf’s actions right now.

  
As Xeno flies back up towards the broken window, Wolf lets out a quiet sigh as he looks up at the sky with a cold expression once more. “Well, Creator? Hopefully you’re satisfied now. You got your happy ending. Kind of. Xeno's alive, I’m alive... and everyone else is dead. Xeno's gonna be traumatized by this for the rest of his life, y’know. He's happy now, but once things go back to relative normalcy, he'll look at me in fear and remember what I’ve done. He'll never look at me the same way again. So? Are you happy now? Are you?”

  
Suddenly, he hears something pop out of the ground in front of him. He looks down and narrows his eyes at the golden flower looking up pleadingly at him. “You.” Flowey gives him a sorrowful and slightly scared look.

  
“Wolfie…” he says in a child’s voice. “Don’t leave me like this… don’t leave things this way… only part of the barrier broke… and its reforming itself now. I can’t escape… please help me revive Chara at least… I need someone… else to play with…” Wolf sneers at him, making Flowey’s petals droop down slightly. “You’re fucking lucky that I’m not killing you right now. I may be a bit too weak to stomp you into the ground, but I can still use Saikik. I could burn you up right now.” Flowey looks like he’s preparing to duck back under the ground, but waits for Wolf to make a move. Instead, Wolf gives him a weak shrug.

  
“...Isn’t it funny?” He continues. “It’s kinda ironic that of all the monsters of the Underground, the only one who I decide to show mercy to...” he weakly raises his arm and points down at Flowey. "...is the one who really doesn’t deserve it. I should kill you. I really should do what Xeno should have done in the first place. ...But for some reason, I won’t. I choose not to. I choose to show YOU mercy. I choose to SPARE you. YOU. Haha...” He drops his hand and gives another little shrug. “Welp. Sometimes I... hate the things I do for Xeno. Now get outta my face."

  
Flowey looks up in shock at Wolf, then glances up at the sky and sees Xeno hop out of the broken window. Fearful for his life, he ducks back underground to hide from Xeno, who plops himself down on the ground where Flowey once was. He gives Wolf a patient smile as he breaks open them both a pathway home. “Well then, Wolfie…” He says quietly. “Let’s… end this already.”  
Xeno holds Wolf’s hand, linking their fingers together as he leads them both into the pathway. After a few seconds of travel, they both get plopped down on top of Distanma, staring out at the mountains and Frozen Wastleland in the distance, not fully visible in the darkness of night but the starlight above and the lights of Tooikuka itself reflects off them and makes them shimmer amongst the night sky nonetheless. Xeno smiles as he turns to Wolf, watching his fur, tail and cape wave gently in the cool but soothing midnight breeze. A calm but weak smile sits on the wolf’s face as he stares mindlessly out at the distance.

  
_It’s nice to feel real like this,_ he thinks as he stares at the waning crescent moon. _I️ love nights like this. I️ feel alive when I️ can stand outside in the darkness like this and just feel the chilled breeze passing through my fur._ He glances at Xeno for a moment, who is standing there staring downward slightly with a reflective smile on his face. _…I️ really do love him. But…_  
“So, Wolfie…” Xeno says as he turns to look at Wolf. “I️… about all those things you mentioned before…”

  
Wolf blinks in silence for a moment, considering his options here… “Oh, yeah…” he says quietly. “Look, Xe… I️ was just not thinking right back there, y’know? Something about that universe was really fucking with my mentality.”

  
“And your morality,” Xeno adds. Wolf chuckles slightly. “Yeah, that too. But… but yeah, all of that crazy shit I️ kept spouting about like… whatever the hell that was. Uh, a Creator or something? Look, I️ heard it from Flowey. You were right; I️ can’t believe I️ actually believed anything that HE said. He really was just trying to fuck with my mind. Guess it worked, huh?”

  
Despite all of that being a big lie, Xeno seems satisfied with that answer. He moves his hands to gently pulls Wolf’s face closer to him and give him a kiss. He then pulls back and moves his one hand to lovingly run it through the fur on the back of Wolf’s head. “Yep, you were a fucking idiot,” he comments playfully. He laughs along with Wolf’s chuckle, then stands beside him and leans his head on Wolf’s shoulder. “So, hey, Wolfie…

  
“It's a beautiful night outside.”

  
Wolf feels a shudder go through him at Xeno’s comment there, clenching and releasing his fists a couple times as he has flashbacks to his many, many deaths... Wolf takes a silent breath and speaks in a whisper.

  
“...Birds are singing, flowers are blooming... on nights like these... heh. Yeah, Xe. It is a nice night, isn’t it?”

 

***#%#***

 

Meanwhile, back in the Underverse, Flowey pops his head back out from the ground and looks out around the desolate and soulless land… it reminds him of himself, honestly. But still… an expression of distress sits plastered on his face as he raises a small vine from the ground. Two buttons appear beside him: CONTINUE and RESET. Flowey looks over the two buttons, his expression turning into fear as a shudder goes down his stem.

  
“Don’t ever come back…”

  
RESET

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally uploaded it all. Welp. If ya made it this far, I really hope you enjoyed it. I’d love to hear what you think, so leave a comment if ya have any questions or... well, comments or whatever.
> 
> I’m planning a sequel for this, but I dunno when I’ll find the motivation to write it.
> 
> Anyway, thanks for reading this random thing! Enjoy life!


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